A Winner Is Two: Chiaroscuro
by avatarjk137
Summary: Latest piece of the A Winner Is Two storyline. Shadow the Hedgehog shakes off his early loss to Dr. Robotnik to deal with the crisis looming at BORED HQ. Can he ferry the BORED members to safety and fulfill his contract? Should he?
1. Introduction

**This is the intro of my latest piece of the A Winner Is Two tournament. I've decided to take up the left-for-adoption Enforcer Shadow to further my mysterious goals.**

**Disclaimer: As always, I do not own Shadow or any of the other characters used. I only own Death By Chocolate and the A Winner Is Two story.**

**A Winner Is Two: Chiaroscuro**

**Persons of Mass Destruction**

Shadow skidded to a halt outside of a set of steel double-doors built into the mountainside. This extra-wide entrance led down to the ATV garage and was probably the single most-used entrance to the building. "I'm here," he said into his walkie-talkie. "What do you need?"

_"There's a demonic presence in the building and we need it stalled or destroyed,"_ Ofdensen said. As always, he spoke levelly, but he had discarded the occasional halts that normally dotted his speech.

Shadow swallowed as he swiped his keycard. "Is it Black Doom?"

_ "No, it's nobody you know. My men are facing it now, but taking heavy casualties and not really damaging it. I need you to arm up and sweep the base. Take out any hostiles of any sort that you find, alright? And absolutely go after anybody who smells like chocolate."_

"**What?**" Shadow dashed down into the hangar, and found not only Solidus's agents mobilizing the remaining ATVs, but all the gunships as well. "Ofdensen, how serious is this?" Shadow dodged out of the way of several ATVs, each holding two armed men, as they sped toward the gates.

_"We're in over our heads, Shadow. I'm leaving, and so are Sakyo and Solidus. You can collect your Emeralds at any time from the generator room – we don't need the shields anymore – and then if you're willing to follow orders during the trip, you can leave with any of us. In fact, you SHOULD take the Emeralds – you'll need the power."_

"Okay, over." Shadow cut the connection, then looked around and immediately turned the radio back on. "Uh… where's the generator room?"

Ofdensen was very calmly seething at him. _"You didn't memorize the layout or get a map?"_

"…No."

_"Alright, there's a map at the armory. You remember where THAT is, right?"_

"Yeah," Shadow grumbled.

_"Good. Over."_

---

Shadow had made it about halfway to the armory when a pack of red… things of about his height blocked his path. They had cloven hooves for feet, clawed hands, no clothes, a stooped posture, upside-down red bat wings, and silly expressions, but there was a look of wiry, brutish strength about them. They also had a distinct unnerving feel to them, like they were slowly sucking Shadow's very soul towards them. "This is the demonic presence?" Shadow asked rhetorically. "Alright, guys, time to eat lead!" He drew the pistol he had been carrying on him. The creatures immediately tensed up, and they began to gibber incoherently.

"Hey, hold up!" A human woman, short-haired and chubby, waved at Shadow to stop. He lowered his pistol, and the gibbering slowed. Shadow recognized her from around the base – she dressed unusually, and he had seen her in the break room once or twice. "You're Shadow, right? That super-fast Enforcer?"

"Yeah," Shadow said. "You're with BORED?"

"Uh-huh. I'm Gilly. Hey, where are you headed?"

"The armory."

"Perfect! I've just been summoning up these guys to go fight that monster upstairs. They'd do a lot better armed, though. As long as you're down there, could you grab any spare knives, clubs, and other Dethklok stuff that you can carry a short distance and rush it over to my little boys here?"

"Uhhh… alright, but I don't have time to make more than one trip."

"Thanks!" Gilly poked one of the imps, and they scrambled to make room for the black hedgehog. "You're a life-saver!"

---

Ofdensen was nearly clear of the suspended-over-lava part of the base when Shadow called again. _"Alright," _the hedgehog greeted, _"I'm at the armory. Where's the map?"_

"The ceiling," Ofdensen replied. He noticed a small scuffle among his quickly-gathered retinue, and put his hand over the mouthpiece. "What's wrong? What is it?"

Two of the Klokateers had grabbed a third, smaller one, by the shoulders. "My lord," began one of the captors, "This man does not have a Gear brand." The smaller one lowered his head and grabbed the speaker's machete out of his hand, driving it into the other captor's throat. The one who had spoken tried to punch the small one out, but his foe ducked and drove an elbow into his groin.

"Who are you?!" Ofdensen asked sharply, drawing the last Klokateer standing behind him. This one had a spear, and leveled it at the faux Klokateer as he snapped the neck of the faithful soldier who exposed him.

"I am justice," the short Klokateer replied throatily. "And I've been waiting a long time to get into this base." He tore off his mask to reveal a new mask, a form-fitting white one with a shifting inkblot pattern. Rorschach recovered the machete he had stolen, gripping it expertly in his off-hand.

Ofdensen sighed and punched a glass panel in, allowing him to grab a fire extinguisher off a wall. "Shadow, something's come up. You're on your own for the moment. Over."

---

"Thanks again, sir!" Gilly said. Shadow dropped off a dozen combat knives, a small spiked mace, and a pair of hatchets with her. For himself, he had kept a pair of pistols – one automatic, one a high-calibur magnum – and a belt holding clips of spare ammo, as well as an empty grenade bandolier that proved well-suited to holding the Chaos Emerald he already had on his person. He also hooked Travis's old Tsubaki onto the ammo belt.

"Don't call me sir, I have no authority here." Shadow checked each pistol before loading and holstering them.

"Sure you do. In emergency situations, authority is determined by keycard clearance and you Enforcers are Gold."

Shadow looked up. "That's good to know. But if you'll excuse me, I need to find the generator room. You should find one of the ways off this rock while you have the chance." He dashed down the winding hallways, leaving Gilly and her imps behind. At first, he encountered nothing but henchmen racing this way and that. Soon, though, he came across an empty hallway near the generator with a large but narrow gash in the ceiling. It had obviously been torn open from the floor above, and blood was steadily trickling down through it. Shouts of pain and anger could be heard in the room above, along with the unmistakable sounds of gunfire. "That's definitely new."

Shadow skated down the hall, careful to dodge around the blood. He had just made it to the other side of the room when the gash was caved in entirely, sending a wrestling pair of forms to the floor. One was a huge, red frilled lizard enveloped in flames, and the other was a brown horned humanoid, who quickly melted due to proximity with the former. "Who the hell are you?"

"Oh, you're one of the Enforcers!" the lizard shouted, getting up on his hind legs. One of his arms ended in a ragged stump, and once he was standing he clutched it gingerly. "I'm one of Sakyo's, no worries. I could use some help with this guy, though."

"What, that puddle?"

"Yeah, he's actually a really tough chocolate demon."

"You're mocking me, aren't you?" Shadow asked, his eyes narrowed.

"No, really! Listen to the words coming out of my-" Shadow sped off. "Fine! DAMN you, then! Now to finish – hey! Where'd you go?"

---

The shield generator room required gold clearance. It was also swelteringly hot, one of the rooms that naturally hung lowest toward the lava, so Shadow took extra care not to waste time.

The room itself was cylindrical, made of unpainted metal, and dominated by the device in the center of the room – a large gyroscope that was no longer rotating, and an array of crystals and lightning rods all around it. The metal surfaces that didn't feature some sort of natural protrusion or connecter port were scrawled with painted-on runes that Shadow didn't recognize, although they reminded him a bit of Angel Island. The device itself had no apparent interface, but there were display screens and control panels all over the walls, along with several cables running across the floor and into the machine.

A lone man in a lab coat and opaque glasses ogled at Shadow. "Who the hell are you?" he snapped, smoothing down his black combover.

Shadow snapped right back, "I'm an Enforcer. Where are the Chaos Emeralds?"

"Oh, you're… okay. Solidus didn't say you'd be a…"

Shadow didn't let the question hang in the air for long. It was too hot for that. "Hedgehog?"

"Really?" The scientist took off his glasses, rubbed them, and put them back on. "Okay, hedgehog. They're at the bottom of the gyroscope, but they're not cool yet-"

Shadow completely ignored this last direction, jumping on the device as soon as he heard "Bottom of the gyroscope." There they were, glittering blue and yellow on either side of the metal rod that acted as they gyroscope's base. Wasting no time, Shadow grabbed an emerald in each hand. The result was a rather explosive shockwave that tore Shadow and the emeralds lose from the device, knocked both him and the scientist off their feet, and sent the gyroscope spinning whimsically.

"Oh, that's just great!" the scientist snapped. "My glasses are cracked! And you've probably given me radiation poisoning or something! You are so lucky I signed a non-litigation clause when I signed up!"

Shadow ignored him and just lay skewed against the wall, his mind buzzing. The emeralds must have still been live with energy from recent use… was holding them supposed to feel this good? He shook his head clear, slotted them into the grenade bandolier, and checked for damage. His ears were ringing, his chest fur was on end, and his gloves were charred, but for the most part he was fine.

"Are you even listening to me?" the scientist griped.

"Alright… I'm ready to roll," Shadow muttered, dashing out the door. It slammed shut behind him.

"Bah… I guess not," the scientist muttered. He became aware of a gurgling, percolating sound. "What's that?" he asked nobody in particular.

"Don't mind me… I'm just investigating the energy spike." A brown viscous substance oozed out of the ceiling air vent and collected into vaguely humanoid shape on the floor. "Huh… guess I missed the party."

"You… you're…" The scientist turned to bolt, only to realize the chocolate shape was between him and the door.

It turned to him and smiled. "You stayed just to keep me company? How sweet." The scientist didn't have time to remember how to activate his communicator.

**End of Chapter**

**I hope to take Shadow further in the direction his character wants to go rather than in the direction required of the Sonic main universe. I promise that I'll take him as far down that path as I can… before some upstart Contestant takes him down. Next chapter, the gloves come off!**

**I like that Solidus's scientist guy can't muster up the suspension of disbelief necessary for the Sonic fandom, when Shadow's own skepticism just aggravated an emergency situation. Skepticism can kill! The scientist, btw, is nobody specific. He's physically modeled after a Team Rocket Scientist, but he can't be one of those, otherwise he'd immediately recognize Shadow as a pokemon.**

**Do you want Rorschach to not die a storyline death? The deadline to adopt him is March 15****th****!**


	2. First Battle Prologue

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Klokateers, Ginger, Robotnik, Nero, the Bride, Joruus, etc. I only own Sully, the setting, and the contents of this chapter.**

**This is sort of a reverse-intermission – instead of showing my character making his way to the beginning of the fight, I've got my opponent's characters getting a couple of minor weapon upgrades and getting to the positions they'll be in when the fight starts. It's also a little bit of a look into the lives of some of the couple hundred henchmen around the base, something I wanted to do and thought would fit best in here.**

**A Winner Is Two: Chiaroscuro**

**Prologue: Last Night of Your Life**

It was times like this when Robotnik really wished he'd had access to the spare metal to build a good old cowcatcher on the front of his ATV.

"Oh, shit, Robotnik's coming! Scatter!"

"No, stop him!"

"Shoot him!"

"Drag the vehicle down!"

The hallways of BORED headquarters were, thankfully, wide enough to support his vehicle with several inches of space on each side. This, however, was not very much for any BORED employees who wanted to dive out of the way. Many of them were forced to run backwards until they found a closet or drinking fountain alcove to hide in.

"Shit, here he comes!"

"Jump over him!"

The intimidation power of having a clearly armed vehicle indoors was such that Robotnik generally didn't even need to fire the weapons. This was nice, because he needed to steer with one arm, and he'd rather keep his right arm still – it was attached to a broken collarbone, which was really quite painful. Still, the occasional bullet flew his way from behind or in front, forcing him to duck and protect his head white he put on a burst of speed and took the next turn.

"Is it the demon?"

"No, it's Robotnik, but he's got a buggy!"

"What's so bad about a bugHOLY SHIT!"

Eventually, of course, he found trouble. Specifically, one of the MIB-type goons he had been encountering repeatedly since he came had shown up wearing evlar SWAT gear and a carbine, and flanked with Klokateers carrying automatic weapons. Robotnik went with what had been working so far – he floored it towards his targets. His remaining rifle was affixed on the left side, so he fired it with his good arm while bringing his right hand up painfully to cover his skull. As the bullets rang against his armor and the hood of his vehicle, he was briefly distracted by the thought of which of his fellow 'contestants' earned the moniker "the demon". Then he remembered Trudy's words over the radio, and wondered instead how literal she had been.

"Keep firing!"

"I can't stop him!"

"Bah! You're both useless!"

The two Klokateers dove to the sides in the face of Robotnik's charge; one was too broad to properly fit between the chassis and the wall, and there was a satisfying crunch from his ribs. The man in riot gear, however, took the novel approach of leaping onto Robotnik's vehicle directly, pointing his carbine in Robotnik's direction. It was hard to maneuver while on the hood of a moving vehicle, so Robotnik was easily able to slap the gun away before the man could properly aim it at his head and fire. Instead, the man wrapped one hand around Robotnik's throat, hatred blazing in his eyes.

"I hate you! I hate you so much, you fat eggy bastard!"

Robotnik was understandably confused, and communicated this as best he could while being strangled and desperately pounding the man's face with his good hand.

The fact that said face was wrapped in a metal glove didn't seem to slow the man down. "I bet Ginger would eat you! It seemed so solid! I bet EVERYTHING, and now I'm ruined!"

At this point, Robotnik hit a wall, which was understandable given how distracted he was. The man flipped over the seat of the buggy, still retaining his grip on Robotnik's throat for about half of his flight arc. This had the effect of slamming him down on his back on the rear of said buggy, stunning him. Coughing, Robotnik massaged his throat, only to cry out in pain as the henchman grabbed his right wrist and pulled backward.

"I'll murder you like you murdered my future!"

"You did this to yourself!" Robotnik gritted his teeth and reached his left arm back the other way around the chair, aiming the plasma blaster his gauntlet where he estimated the man's body was. "Let go! Last warning!"

"NEVER!" The man roared, his voice cracking.

Robotnik took a deep breath and fired, and the pressure eased up immediately. He got up from his seat to inspect the front of his vehicle. It was fine; these walls weren't any harder than the local trees. Looking back, the rage-filled man was laying on the floor, gasping for breath, as was one of the Klokateers. The other just appeared stunned. Robotnik quickly relieved that one of his rifle and placed it in the vacant mount on his vehicle (replacing the one Ban had destroyed). "Humans are so irrational," he muttered, for his own benefit as much as the wounded man's. "And people ask why I prefer the company of robots."

"Interesting choice, myself. I prefer demons. With demons, you're never under the illusion that they care about your interests more than their own." Robotnik looked up. A bald man wearing a tattered cloak over a business suit had turned the corner in from the way he had come. Robotnik tensed, but the man simply kept walking slowly towards him. "And when you work with demons, all that nasty uncertainty about where you go when you die is gone."

"That's a unique philosophy," Robotnik observed. "I was just leaving."

"I'm sure you _were,_" the man sneered. He stopped walking and snapped his fingers, and Robotnik witnessed what he recognized as several small tears in the fabric of reality forming around the man. Out of these rips spilled dozens of little black and purple, flapping creatures that circled their master. Robotnik's first impression was that of winged piranha, and he decided to take a seat on his ATV.

The creatures split into several groups. As Robotnik brought his guns to bear, one flew in front of the human controlling them and spread out, clearly intending to block the bullets. The others descended on the defeated henchmen in the hall, and Robotnik got a very good idea of what was happening to them. He fired several shots at the summoner, but the defensive swarm was successful in their mission – even though nearly every bullet resulted in a dead little piranha-thing on the ground, more were rising from the corpses as they were being digested. These, in turn, began to eat their freshly killed comrades. Robotnik became very aware that there was a turn wide enough for the ATV on his immediate right, and decided to take it. "Farewell!" he called. "Discretion is the better part of battle.

"Run, puny human!" the man called, leaving even Robotnik to wonder what scale the summoner was using where 'puny' was appropriate to describe him. "But you can't escape! For one faction or the other, tonight belongs to the demons!"

---

Beatrix Kiddo gazed up at the huge BORED base, or at least what she could see of it looming through the volcanic smoke. It didn't seem like a particularly wise place to build a headquarters, but then the shield supposedly erected around the entire island must have had an understandably high energy requirement. Besides, people with too much money, power, and ambition got… _eccentric._ Regardless, the only obvious way in was up a metal staircase and catwalk suspended over lava, through a volcanic cloud. The platform was probably boiling hot, and she didn't want to travel across it if she had a choice. She resolved to look for another entrance, although she'd travel up the stairs if she had to – it was a small danger after what she had already gone through.

Ironically, an alternate entrance didn't take her long at all to find. The valley nestling the base had sheer cliff faces on each side, and one of these had a rectangular hole cut into the stone. It was obviously a doorway, and there was even a keycard slot – however, the door was missing. Beatrix cautiously entered, and found the door (which had been marked 'MEMBERS ONLY' without a drop of irony) lying against the far wall. It looked to have been smashed in by brute force, clear off its hinges. The room was otherwise empty except for some flickering lighting and dust – this route hadn't been used much. Kiddo explored with her knife at the ready, but for the next couple of hallways, found nothing but restrooms (which she used happily, ecstatic for such luxuries as a toilet and two-ply paper after months in the forest), drinking fountains (likewise), and a set of vending machines selling Poop Cola, girl's panties, Duncan Hills coffee, _blood,_ and something called Plasmids. She hastily vandalized the coffee machine and got herself a free Styrofoam cup of hot chocolate, but avoided the rest. Side doors led only to unused offices and janitor's closets.

She turned toward the fourth hallway, just starting to relax, and was instantly on alert again at the sound of distant battle. It seemed to be heading away from her, but she kept her knife at the ready in one hand and her cocoa (for throwing in faces now more than drinking) in the other. Holding her breath, she opened the door… and a man who was burning from head to toe rushed straight at her, screaming. Too startled to even scream, she dodged out of the way of his charge and prepared to counterattack. However, he just kept running the way she had come, still screaming. Kiddo blinked at him in bemusement before turning back to the hallway in front of her.

She was definitely following in somebody's path; most likely, it was another contestant. Maybe a dozen black-hooded men littered the hallway. Most of them showed high-caliber bullet wounds or slash wounds of the type a sword would inflict. Some of both types of wounds were charred. Her eyes scanned the hall for survivors; a cough immediately alerted her to one, and she turned to find a man with two huge bullet holes in his torso. "What happened here?" she asked sharply, leaning down to him.

"Ah, shit, there's more of you," the man wheezed. Beatrix tore off his mask; he was a man with reddish-brown hair and sideburns, and an awful lot of fresh blood around his nose and mouth. She'd seen worse, and didn't hesitate to hold her knife to his throat when she repeated the question. He grinned, showing a very bloody mouth. "Your knife looks thrashed to hell, babe. You should get a new one." It looked like talking was very painful to him. She responded that it would still serve well enough for ending his worthless life and repeated the question, digging into his throat a bit. "Your knife looks even worse off than your FACE!" he managed, and started laughing uncontrollably and coughing up blood. She slit his throat disdainfully.

"Holy shit, it's the Blood-Spattered Bride." She turned to find another survivor, down and across the hallway. She turned and walked over to him, crouching next to him. This one took his own mask off, showing a black mullet and goatee. "You know, for my personal angel of death… well, you're not first pick, but top five for sure. We've been watching the tournament. You're stone-cold, you know that? And really hot. I don't care what 420 said, you're still hot."

"What happened here?" she asked, ignoring the bizarre praise. She scanned over his injuries. His right arm was just a burnt stump, and his leg on that side had taken a blow of overwhelming blunt force just above the knee. You didn't get to be as great a killer as those in the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad without learning something about healing – if only to how likely a target was to live through a given injury. Beatrix's amateur diagnosis was that this man would live given any competent medical attention, but he would almost certainly be a double amputee.

"Another contestant came through; a guy named Nero. Didn't have a keycard, but we didn't reinforce our doors enough to deal with this guy. You shouldn't face him; he's been beaten once before, but that guy used some crazy powers. Nero's got a bunch of crazy-ass weapons and he ate through all our bullets like they were Rice Krispies." He started laughing. "Rice Krispies!"

"Why is everybody here so giddy about dying?" Beatrix asked in annoyance. Then she noticed the smell, and saw it lying on the ground. A joint. Now that she looked among the corpses and blood, there were a few. "You guys snuck down here to get high?" she asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, nobody ever leaves this way out of the base because there are better exits to any given outpost." The guy shrugged his non-mutilated shoulder. "It's why I'm not in excruciating pain, I guess. I mean, it hurts, but mostly I'm just hungry." He sniffed. "Oh my Dethklok, is that cocoa? I could go for some cocoa right now."

"Uh… here." Kiddo gave him the cocoa. "So, do you think I could reason with Nero?" She tapped her foot and looked around. She was starting to feel uncomfortable; if the man had been dead, it would have felt more natural to just loot the men present. She was about to start anyway.

"Probably not. Idiot's going to get himself killed; we've got some real demons hanging around down here. Speaking of…" he took a big swallow of cocoa. "You killed Joruus. We all saw it on the big screen."

"Um, yeah. So?" She looked down. There was a nicely sized Western longsword not far from the injured henchman. It looked like it could come in handy, and she bent down to check it out further. About 45 inches, a hand-and-a-half sword, kind of gaudy (it featured bat-wings as a guard, a horned skull for a pommel, and the inscription 'FLY WITH US TONIGHT. KLOKATEERS 2009' on the blade), but it looked very functional, and would probably serve her well.

"Thank you," he said with a new seriousness. "He was mind a lot of us, including some of my best friends. When he died, all the people he was controlling became comatose for a while, and a couple even died, but it was a weight off all our minds. That's my sword you've got there. I wasn't fast enough to use it against Nero when he came charging in; I hope you put it to better use."

_It's not a katana, but it'll do just fine._ This was the only sword in the room; there were other guns, but most of them looked to have been specifically targeted by Nero's attacks and destroyed."Thanks," she said, turning around, and froze. He had a gun pointed at her. The one she had taken off Harry. She noticed the spilled cocoa. The man had waited until she turned around to look at his sword, and pickpocketed the gun _right out of a trained assassin's side pocket with his only remaining arm._ That took balls. "Are you really going to shoot me?" she asked.

"I'm surprised I even got this from you; I'm not even left-handed," he said, with the wheezing chuckle characteristic of stoners. Than his face became serious again. "Death before dishonor," he announced, and pulled the gun under his own chin. "Thanks again for killing Joruus," he said. "One of the men he mind-controlled… one of the ones who died… should have been me. I called in sick that day so I could smoke pot down here, and 205 took my place." He laughed a little more, but there was something sad about it this time. "And sorry for wasting one of your bullets."

**End of Chapter**

** Those had a weird feel to them, didn't they? They were originally meant to be a bit smaller, but they kind of took on a life of their own. I hope you guys like them!**


	3. Round 1: Vs Robotnik Vs The Bride

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters involved.**

**A Winner Is Two: Chiaroscuro**

**First Battle (vs. Dr. Robotnik and the Bride): The Unparalleled**

Shadow hadn't gotten far with his new emeralds before communications picked back up. "Shadow, where are you?" It was Sakyo, and he sounded a bit desperate.

"I'm in the base. Name where you need me to be and I'll be there in seconds."

"Good. My data tells me Robotnik has been plowing through guards at the upper level. Kill him."

Shadow shivered involuntarily and rubbed the spot where Robotnik had bludgeoned him on top of the head. He'd been in bed for three days from the concussion. "Can anybody else do it?"

"Mystique and Jiraiya are engaged elsewhere, Incredible's fighting Kakashi, and I don't think we'll be able to trust either of them after that. Jade's doing gods know what, and Smoker's out for Ofdensen's blood – long story. Tashigi will be on her way, but he's almost at the wide elevator for his ATV, and she can't intercept him in time. I need you to be at the bottom of that elevator, waiting for him, because-"

"Because giving Eggman a helicopter is like giving me all the Chaos Emeralds," Shadow finished grimly.

"Right. Don't let him take any of the aircraft." Sakyo could be heard giving orders to somebody else for a minute. "I'm out. You have your orders, and we have our expectations of you."

"You're right… and you guys came through on your end of the bargain. It's time I made good on mine."

* * *

Robotnik expected flying, self-replicating demon piranhas to flood down the hallway behind him at any minute, but nothing seemed to be giving chase. It was downright reassuring to sideswipe the last Klokateer in the way, swipe his stolen keycard in the slot next to the suitably wide elevator, pull the ATV into the elevator, which was already on the right floor, and slam the DOOR CLOSE button just as the man was recovering his weapon.

He caught his breath while he studied the buttons. The CAFÉ button made him remember how long it had been since he had eaten a decent sub sandwich, but he knew the base was starting to fall apart around his ears. He had heard the distant 'booms'… and the screams... although interestingly enough, the power was still on. Finally, the HANGAR button caught his eye. If there were any air transport vehicles at all, they'd be down there. As handy as the geothermal-powered second stage of his ATV would be, it wouldn't get him back to the mainland.

The elevator ride was uneventful, but Robotnik was still jittery. He'd aim a rifle at the air vent on the ceiling every few seconds, his mustache practically standing on end. BORED employed some disturbing people – a blue shapeshifting woman, a mysterious hedgehog who seemed to know him, and now a man who summoned _things._ Nasty things. Robotnik didn't wonder if there was a demon around anymore; he wondered how many and how powerful. Hopefully there would be something unoccupied in the hangar that he could take to get off the island; once he was home and safe at one of his labs, he'd come back to level the island, if its owners hadn't already.

The door slid open. The hedgehog who had introduced himself as Shadow was right on the other side. He wasn't on a vehicle this time, but he was armed, wearing a pair of pistols on a belt and a bandolier that had no less than three Chaos Emeralds. "Good evening, Doctor," he said coldly. Robotnik wasn't sure if he hesitated with the gunfire more out of recognition or because Shadow hadn't called him 'Eggman'. The fact that he hadn't drawn a weapon helped, although Robotnik quickly realized that Shadow would probably have a supernaturally fast draw anyway. Instead, his hands were on his hips disapprovingly. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to take a vehicle and get off the island," Robotnik answered. "Since your employers kidnapped me, it's only fair."

"Most of your opponents were kidnapped," Shadow corrected. "As I understand it, you joined willingly."

Robotnik cursed inwardly. This was true. "Fine. New line of reasoning. I desire aerial transport off the island and have the power to seize it."

"Wrong." Shadow's eyes narrowed. "I am the Ultimate Life Form. Robotnik, you may not remember me, but I was created by your own grandfather, with the help of a greater power he did not fully understand. I have on my person everything I need to destroy you utterly. You have one chance to take that elevator back up and leave the way you came."

Robotnik had been sneering since 'Ultimate Life Form', with only a brief break to look surprised at the mention of his grandfather. "My grandfather died several decades ago and you don't sound a day over twenty-five, so please excuse my skepticism. As for the way I came… I'm afraid that's not an option." He fingered his rifle nervously. Shadow was dangerous, but he was the safer bet compared to what lay behind, because he was mostly a known factor. A gun-using, pragmatic Sonic? He could handle that, although the Chaos Emeralds were a wild card.

"There are aircraft here, but the staff needs them," Shadow explained. "Thanks to people like _you_, we have some dead and wounded."

"I didn't go out of my way to kill them," Robotnik said defensively. "I had guns and a vehicle, and they were in my way. They had the option to let me pass."

"They were just doing their job, Robotnik," Shadow retorted, although he kept any anger out of his voice. "As am I." He drew his magnum and took a shot.

Whatever Shadow was, he was not the marksman of the century. The bullet hit Robotnik in his good left arm, not in his vulnerable head or the part of his armor that Ban had damaged. Still, the force of the bullet was exceptional enough to cause Robotnik to flinch and spin his chair partway around. By the time Robotnik had raised his rifle and spun back to face Shadow, he had zipped backwards and slid behind a crate for cover.

Robotnik kept one eye on where he knew Shadow was hiding, although the other noted idly that there were at least six helicopters still on the ground – smaller gunships and larger air transports. A VTOL jet also sat prepped for takeoff. Henchmen of mostly the suited variety were bustling about, getting the vehicles all ready for takeoff, or – as Shadow had said – loading injured men into the transport copters. There was also a harbor in the distance, along with a hole near the cavern ceiling that led to the smoke-filled valley in the middle of the island.

Shadow burst from the cover on the other side, and before Robotnik could fully react, he had fired several rounds from his automatic pistol and one round from his magnum. Again, the shots missed or bounced harmlessly off his armor, and Shadow had gone backwards and veered off to dive behind cover again by the time Robotnik could fire his first round. Robotnik had caught sight of something, though, and he had to stop himself from laughing as he trundled his vehicle farther into the open. After firing the larger-caliber pistol, Shadow had a pattern of running backwards, and the doctor figured out why – the hedgehog was light enough that the gun's recoil poised a serious threat of knocking him off his feet.

Not content to let Shadow determine the pace of the battle, Robotnik pursued the hedgehog this time. His ATV wasn't exactly quiet, so he didn't expect the element of surprise – and he wasn't surprised that Shadow had circled around behind him and was firing at his back. Then again, Shadow hadn't noticed he had a moving rearview camera and attached rifle. Robotnik quickly put it to good use, and fired a few shots that just barely missed Shadow's thin frame before he dashed off again. "This cat and mouse is getting bothersome, Shadow," Robotnik called, making a quick U-turn to follow after him. "You're clearly outgunned." He turned a corner, and found a spent clip from Shadow's automatic pistol.

"You're right. I can't gain the advantage against you with just machines." Shadow appeared in front of Robotnik again, this time running at him and jumping forward. Robotnik saw that the jump would carry Shadow straight into him, and let his rifle do the talking. To his surprise, Shadow had one of his Chaos Emeralds in hand, and he quickly put it to use. "Chaos Control!" a red energy field formed in front of Shadow, and Robotnik could only watch as his bullets flowed smoothly around it, passing Shadow unharmed. This was not a trick he had seen before. Then he stopped firing, and Shadow quickly switched to a trick he _had _seen before – Sonic's homing attack. The hedgehog curled into a ball and suddenly launched himself forward in mid-air, slamming into Robotnik's chest.

The mechanic's chair spun wildly from the slightly off-center impact and spilled Robotnik unceremoniously out of his vehicle. Launched back into the air from the homing attack impact, Shadow pulled out his machine pistol and took a few shots. Robotnik raised his good arm to protect his face, gritting his teeth at the fresh pain in his collarbone from the fall. He cursed a bit, and when the bullets stopped, risked a glance.

Shadow had come to a light landing on the seat of his vehicle. "Looks like it's game over for you, _Eggman."_ Robotnik's resolve hardened, and he pointed right at Shadow, launching a plasma blast from his gauntlet. Shadow had known something was coming, but the blast still grazed the spikes of fur on the back of his head, and one was lit ablaze. Giving a small shout of alarm, Shadow dashed off before Robotnik was able to fire another shot or draw a different weapon, and Robotnik couldn't help but smile as he climbed back into the chair, muttering things like "Ultimate Life Form my foot" and "Can't even learn from his mistakes." He heard Shadow 's staccato of rapid footsteps carrying him even further off. "Now for those helicopters."

* * *

As soon as Shadow had gotten some distance, he stopped to pat out the fire on his head. It worked, although he was left with a missing piece in one of his fur spikes and one of his gloves was further damaged. "I'm going to kill that damn egg!" he snarled, feeling at the back of his head. He didn't consider himself a vain person, but he did know exactly how much he hated being made to look ridiculous (something he, ironically, shared with Robotnik).

_"Shadow, report in."_ This time it was Solidus at his communicator. Shadow grabbed it and flipped it open. Solidus didn't wait for him to speak. _"Good, you're there. The Bride has made it to the harbor. Don't let her escape with Smoker's ship or the submarine. And don't let her get to any of the helicopters in the hangar. I don't know if she knows how to fly, but it's not a chance I'm taking."_

"Kinda busy here," Shadow grumbled. "I'm facing Robotnik in the hangar now."

_"That's perfect," _Solidus interrupted. _"I won't lie to you, Shadow, we're shorthanded all of the sudden, and we need somebody to be in two places at once. You're the only man fast enough for the job. Just keep them away from the copters and ships."_

Shadow was already headed for the harbor. "What about Sakyo's jet?"

Solidus's voice was cold. _"It's no concern of mine. Sakyo's dead to me, and to the rest of BORED as well."_ He cut off radio contact.

Grumbling, Shadow ran along the harbor, looking for the Bride. It didn't take long to hear the shouting from Smoker's ship, and Shadow jumped up onto it.

* * *

"I'm going to ask again," the Bride said. For the first time in months, she had drawn a real sword in battle. And it felt _good. _She was holding the sword white-knuckled, her scarred face contorted into a grimace that she hoped was still as intimidating as it always had been. "It's nothing personal, but I have to get back to B.B."

The men, who claimed to be Marines from the 'World Government' (what was she, five?) had drawn swords on her, but the first slash had left many of them with shallow cuts and all of them keeping their distance. Others had gone below deck, presumably to fetch guns, so she was getting ready to attack. "Look, lady, we don't know what a B.B. is, " one man said, "but assaulting soldiers is against international law, so drop your weapon!"

"Wrong answer," the assassin said. She dashed forward, but a black wind seemed to roll past, whisking the soldier out of the path of her sword. She turned and saw that he had been dropped off farther down the deck of the ship by what looked like an angry, miniaturized version of one of the Mickey Mouse animal mascots from Disney land.

"Let me handle this one," he said. By chance, the Bride's entire experience on Grand Cross Isle so far had been with other humans, so she had never seen anything even vaguely like Shadow. She searched her entire catalogue of reactions to stimuli and came up blank, so she merely stared open-mouthed at Shadow, waiting for further mental input. "Why are you staring?" he asked, annoyed. "Is it because of the burnt fur?" His gloved hand brushed one of the… spikes on the back of his head.

Shaking her head clear, the Bride noticed that the rest of the Marines were backing off, clearing space for her and the creature to fight on the ship's main deck. The Bride was not a slow thinker, and she quickly summed up what she knew about this creature – first, the other Marines took orders from him or at least deferred to him in one-on-one fights, and second, he was capable of moving almost too fast to be seen. She dashed forward and took a quick, relatively safe swing at his chest.

The creature easily dodged backwards, pulling a white cylinder from its belt. "Not very friendly, are you? That's okay, I already know what I need. I've read the files, Miss Kiddo. If you do feel like diplomacy, my name is Shadow the Hedgehog. Otherwise…" the end of the cylinder slid out on an extending antenna for over a meter before a laser blade flared to life between the end and the handle. The Bride generally got the impression of a primitive version of the sword that Joruus had used. It was the nearly the length of the Bride's own sword, and looked a bit large for the creature wielding it.

"Unless you want to tell me where my seat is on the next flight off this godforsaken island, we have nothing to talk about." The Bride punctuated this statement by charging forward again. Shadow slashed, but although it was fast, it was also clumsy and telegraphed; the Bride rolled underneath and nearly took his legs off at the knees, but he leaped into the air. Shadow slashed downward at her, and she blocked instinctively; luckily, the blade held against whatever it was that the laser blade was made of. Instead, he kicked off of her blade and backflipped, landing on an upper deck of the ship.

The Bride pulled out a pistol, not about to let the hedgehog control the range of the fight. Shadow immediately jumped again and curled into a spiked ball in midair, then came rushing towards her. With almost superhuman speed, she brought up her blade to block. The impact knocked her flat on her back. Shadow was thrown straight up, and she saw that he had a nasty, if shallow, wound on his back. However, he dropped right back down with his blade extending again and reversed it again, aiming the spiked tip towards her heart. She blocked with her sword again, and he fell sideways off of her, running a few steps to the main mast.

The hedgehog surprised her yet again by running straight _up_ the mast at speeds that no human would ever even approach unassisted. Grateful that Harry's old gun was still in her off-hand, she took a few shots at him. Shadow was forced to jump off the side of the mast, and the force of his jump carried him entirely off the boat and onto the harbor at the ground. His path was much slower and easier to track in the air, and the Bride took a shot before he hit the ground. "Chaos Control!" he yelled as she was aiming, and he _flickered_ sideways several feet, dodging the bullet by a wide margin.

The Bride was becoming frustrated. Shadow was supernaturally fast, hard to track, and well-armed; she could handle that. However, all the impossible shit was becoming old very quickly. Even Pai Mei didn't do this kind of crap during training. When he pulled out a machine pistol, she couldn't help herself. "Let me guess – it shoots magic."

"It shoots BULLETS," Shadow replied. Then he pulled a gem off the bandolier on his chest. A huge blue emerald. It looked like it would put the Hope Fucking Diamond to shame. "_This_ shoots magic, or close enough. Do you want me to hit you with both so you can compare?"

Setting her jaw, the Bride pulled out Harry's gun. She preferred swords, but she was no stranger to guns, and it took only a second to line up a shot right between the creature's eyes. However, that was time enough for him to run about thirty paces to one side, so the shot was rendered moot. He extended his gem and fired back – "Chaos Spear!" A large arrow of red energy shot from it and flew in a slightly curved arc towards the Bride. She dove to the deck to dodge it, obscuring herself from view behind the wooden railing of the ship.

She crawled down several feet, hoping to throw off his focus and aim when she popped back up into visibility, but a boot stomped down in her way. It was one of those weird fake marines, and he was pointing a rifle at her. "Stand down, little missy," he said with a sneer. She noticed her gun was already pointing at his ankle, so she just shot him in the leg before she could react. He dropped with a yell, and she saw more of the soldiers coming her way. She pointed her gun at the fallen man's chin, and that got them to hesitate. A desperate idea sparked in her head.

Hooking her sword arm under the wounded soldier, she hauled him into a standing position, keeping her gun at his head. "I have a hostage!" she yelled. She may have been the former Black Fucking Mamba, but she didn't want a shipful of soldiers on one side and Shadow the Weird Thing on the other. She pressed her back up against the side of the ship's cabin so that neither side would be able to exploit it. "Nobody move." There was only one problem with this strategy…

"She's not going anywhere," Shadow observed. He was right. There was no way she could get any way off the ship without repeatedly exposing her back, and she doubted she get these guys to just sail out of here and keep a hostage the entire time it took to get to an island with a city. "You don't have to let her kill the hostage, but keep her from leaving. I have to go deal with… Robotnik…"

His voice faltered at the sound of an approaching helicopter. The Bride peeked over the railing, and saw a heavily modified ATV being driven in Shadow's direction. Now, the Bride thought that she would never see a stranger-looking man than the Joker, but the driver of this ATV blew all competition out of the water. He (it?) was a great mountain of a man with some muscle well-hidden under a generous amount of flab, which was in turn well hidden under a suit of outlandish, grey-green armor. One arm appeared to be made of steel, and there were steel caps over his ears. Even his head, bald except for an enormous mustache, was mountain-shaped. His eyes were glowing red with black sclera, which would've been startling to her one survival tournament ago.

The man was also being chased by a helicopter, which was spraying a belly-mounted flamethrower at him. The various rifles and spikes on his vehicle were impressive, but inadequate for what he had to deal with. He drove right at Shadow, shouting bloody murder over the sound of the chopper, and the hedgehog easily dodged. Desperately swerving to avoid the flames as the chopper caught up with him, he narrowly managed to avoid plowing into the water at the edge of the pier.

He then turned and fired a red flash out of his gauntlet. This slammed into the side of the gunship's chassis as it was turning and left a nasty scorch mark. There didn't seem to be any serious damage, but it seemed to intimidate the pilot, because the helicopter instead flew off into what looked like the flooded cave network the wooden ship had come in through. Panting, the strange man in the ATV straightened up and said, "A temporary setback at best. I'll just commandeer another."

"Having fun with the copter pilots, Eggman?" Shadow drawled. His face contorting like he had suffered a rather nasty stroke, 'Eggman' took hold of one of the controls on his ATV and fired a spray of bullets out of the rear-mounted rifle at Shadow, sending him sprinting for cover. The Bride narrowed her eyes. Clearly, this 'Eggman' was no friend of the staff, despite having a rather singular vehicle. However, he might be too much of a threat to be allowed to live. In the meantime, as long as Shadow was kept busy, the battle equation changed for her.

She slammed her hostage's head into the cabin's outer wall and allowed him to slump to the floor, unconscious. Jarred back to an alert after the lull in combat and watching others fight, there was a second where the marines were still readying their weapons, and she took that second to charge into the middle of them. Just the soldiers, with no Enforcer and mostly swordsmen? She liked those odds.

* * *

"Still touchy about that name? Maybe you would prefer I call you something else? Egg… nog?" Shadow peeked around the corner of his crate and had to dodge right back around as bullets were sprayed at him. Robotnik had turned his ATV to face him. "Egg… salad? No, you're too fat." Shadow could actually hear Eggman's teeth grinding. The man had an inordinately high IQ, and Shadow knew his best bet to get him to slip up was to get him angry. He had learned the man's buttons the hard way. "If you've betrayed anybody lately, I can call you Eggs Benedict."

A home-brewed grenade flew lazily over Shadow's cover and landed in front of him. About the time of its first bounce, bullets began flying by on _each_ side of Shadow's cover. He had to give the mad scientist an 'A' for effort, but… "CHAOS CONTROL!" He came out of the teleport above and in front of Robotnik's ATV and dropped toward it, drawing Travis's beam katana and activating it. For an instant, Shadow considered doing a one-liner based on 'scrambled egg', but settled for a battle cry.

Robotnik looked up and smiled a… well, with his face, all his smiles were unnerving. Then he pulled out a laser blade of his own and blocked Shadow's strike – a more advanced blade, in fact, more like what Shadow had seen from Joruus than Travis. Shadow was sure he hadn't had that last time. "Nice of you to _drop in,"_ he said venomously, and Shadow decided that maybe he just should've kept his mouth shut entirely. Shadow's feet hit the hood of the vehicle, and Robotnik pulled out a pistol with a noticeable grunt of pain. Was his right arm injured? That was… exploitable.

At any rate, Shadow jumped off to the side of the vehicle, not eager to be shot at point-blank. Robotnik fired anyway, wincing at the recoil. It grazed Shadow's side, and he gritted his teeth, clutching the shallow wound. "It's downright disrespectful of me to call me that," Robotnik snapped. "How would you like it if I started calling you Sonic?"

Shadow's eyes narrowed. "Not very much." Robotnik began turning his cart around, but he was out in the open now, and within two seconds, Shadow had circled him nearly entirely to get to Robotnik's right arm. He swung in with the beam katana, and Robotnik was fast enough to block it, so Shadow used his free hand to chop at Robotnik's upper arm. The result was a howl of pain and a burst of strength in Robotnik's sword arm that pushed Shadow back and nearly off his feet. Experimenting, Shadow took a tight 540 around the ATV and successfully got Robotnik to lose track of him before coming in on the other side and taking a punch at THAT upper arm, to see if he could disarm Robotnik of the sword.

He came away with a bruised knuckle. Robotnik's arm on that side was entirely robotic. "Who _are you_?" Shadow asked, backing off. Robotnik looked like he was about to answer proudly, but then his ATV exploded.

* * *

The marines were pretty well-trained. The Bride had only taken down four or five when one managed to jam a gun barrel into her back. Not only had he snuck up on her, he had somehow done it with a bazooka. "Stop or I'll fire!" he commanded. The Bride stopped in mid-lopping-a-man's-arm-off. "Pull it out without hurting him further, and then drop your sword." She complied with the first part, and then stopped.

"Wait…" she smiled. "You can't fire that thing. You'll kill yourself and the man in front of me as well as me." She thought this would stop him (these guys seemed pretty aware of human life), but then he laughed. "What's so funny?" she asked coldly.

"I won't die," he said confidently. "My shipmate and I… we're wearing armored boots! We're in no danger!" The man who she had just halfway taken an arm off of, who was backing off slowly, helpfully raised one of his boots for an example. There was indeed armor plating on it. The Bride found she had no argument against this logic, and yielded him the point.

Then he made a fatal mistake. As he turned to call for a pair of handcuffs, he let his aim slip. The Bride turned and sliced his hand clean off, then bent down and quickly grabbed the rocket launcher. All the other marines backed off, except for the man she had just taken the weapon from, who merely screamed incoherently at her and pointed at his stump with his remaining hand. She shoved him out of the way with the flat of her blade and turned the weapon toward the fight between 'Eggman' and Shadow.

Shadow was rapidly circling around his opponent, and they both had those laser blades. She reasoned that she would probably need to eliminate both of them, and 'Eggman' would require a direct hit from the rocket, while Shadow could conceivably be seriously injured or at least stunned by the concussive force. With that in mind, she fired at the ATV.

One thing the Bride had never done before was fire a bazooka or other type of rocket launcher. She was expecting a massive recoil. Instead, she was treated to the screams of a few marines behind her as they were roasted by the backblast. The smell, and the sound of their screams sickened her, but she forced herself not to look, and to let the explosion from the rocket drown out the shouts for a medic. "It's for B.B.," she reminded herself, diving off the ship's railing. In the water, she briefly saw Shadow sinking helplessly past her before she turned back to the surface and breached, climbing up onto the carved granite of the harbor.

The ATV was burning wreckage… and its owner was sitting in its seat, floating a good thirty feet above the wreckage. He was putting away his beam sword and pistol, and picking up the rifle in his lap. There was also a shield resting on a hook on the seat's side. The seat was _floating._ The Bride was having trouble getting over that part. And the man in it looked upset. "I worked for a good long time on that vehicle," he said. "Days, in fact. And how long did it take you to destroy it? Maybe three seconds to steal a big weapon? Another two to make a spur-of-the-moment choice to attack me unprovoked? I confess, madam, that I had no quarrel with you, but you've made a terribly strong case that I should shoot you right now. Do you have a counterargument?"

The Bride was painfully aware that she had lost Harry's pistol onboard the ship at some point. Swallowing, she began, "Eggman, right? If you know how to fly those helicopters, I could help you get to one of them, and you could fly us-" it wasn't working. Eggman had turned rather purple in the face. "Did I say something wrong?"

"It is** Doctor Robotnik of the House of Ivo**, and you have just made up my mind!" Robotnik opened fire, sending an entire clip of rounds spiraling down in the Bride's direction. She managed to get behind one of the harbor's myriad crates (this one marked 'BEEF JERKY', the one above it perplexingly marked 'STACK ME'), but not before taking bullets to the left shoulder, thigh, and calf. All but immobilized by the pain, she waited with tears in her eyes for him to come after her. She had no way of dealing with an airborne opponent, let alone one with an assault rifle. The outcome was looking pretty poor for her. _I should've taken my chances with the marines,_ she thought.

* * *

Shadow could run at the speed of sound, leap six times his height from a standing position, was immune to aging, and with enough Chaos power, could teleport, alter the flow of time and space, create destructive dimensional rifts, control raw Chaos energy, or temporarily become a transcendent being with the power to fly and move at the speed of light. He could not, however, swim.

_I'm drowning!_ was the first thought that came into his head. Incidentally, it was also the fourth and sixth thoughts. The second thought was _Why did the ATV blow up?_, the third thought was, _This sucks so much,_ the fifth thought was, _Hey, that was the Bride!, _and the seventh was, _this wound on my side stings a lot._ After that, he managed to think something useful. _What am I doing? I'm Shadow the Hedgehog. Does it matter if I can't swim? I'm the Ultimate Life Form! I'm not about to be defeated by water, of all things!_ "CHAOS CONTROL!" he yelled, letting out most of his remaining air.

Shadow, along with several gallons of seawater, was displaced onto the deck of Smoker's battleship. He looked around. Smoker's men had suffered considerably in his short absence. A few were dead, several more were injured, even mutilated. "You attacked her," he said flatly.

"She dropped the hostage," one of the unwounded men replied. He was bandaging up another, severely burned man. Shadow took off his gloves, emptying out the seawater, and then decided to leave them off. They were pretty badly burnt and bloodstained now anyway. "Sir? The other Contestant you were fighting seems to have the situation under control."

"What?" Shadow turned. Robotnik was on a floating chair – the chair from the ATV. He had apparently launched himself clear of the explosion with it. He was at least that much like the Eggman Shadow knew. However, he was using his floating chair to mercilessly hunt a woman down, which wasn't something he had ever known Eggman to do. _…I should just let them battle it out. I can finish off the victor at my leisure._ "What happened to Egg- to Robotnik's vehicle?"

"The fat guy? The woman took one of our rocket launchers and shot it. I'm surprised you're both all right, that was a big blast… and you're not even wearing metal shoes." Shadow gritted his teeth. "You alright, sir?" Shadow nodded, but then his communicator rang. He opened it, marveling that it still worked at all after being immersed.

"_Shadow, why aren't you fighting Robotnik?"_ Sakyo pressed. _"I got a call from one of the pilots that he almost took the vehicle."_

"Solidus told me to go fight the Bride. Now they're fighting- hang on, I have another call." Shadow checked the screen. "It's Solidus."

"_Patch him through, then. I need to know what he thinks he's doing." _Shadow complied, and Solidus's growl came right through.

"_What are you doing? I heard that the Bride killed a bunch of those Marines! What are we paying you for, Shadow?"_

"_What do you need the Marines for?" _Sakyo asked. _"Smoker's dead anyway."_

"_Sakyo? You idiot, Tashigi's no help if she learns we've let her Marines get hurt."_

"_Keeping all the escape routes open is more important! Shadow, get out there and kill Robotnik!"_

"_Those Marines are one of the escape routes! Shadow, I need you to kill the Bride!"_

"_Solidus, don't forget which of us is higher in BORED's hierarchy!"_

"_After this incident, there isn't going to BE a hierarchy, you damned, demon-consorting fool! I'll have you court-martialed for this!"_

"_Court-martialed? You demented old terrorist, we're not in –"_

"SHUT UP!" Shadow yelled into the phone.

"_Shadow…" _Sakyo's voice was almost pleading. _"Just kill them both. They're both threats to our safe evacuation if they're down in the harbor."_

"I'll just wait for one to kill the other."

"_Travis tried that,"_ Solidus argued,_ "and he got himself killed when the two Contestants he was fighting allied."_ Actually, the opposite was true, although Shadow didn't know it – Travis's presence, rather than his absence, had spurred the two into an alliance. _"Get back in that fight right now and ensure there are no loose ends. If you do and I get off this rock alive, I will help you track down another Chaos Emerald afterwards. You have my word."_

"Done," Shadow said, ending the call. To be honest, he wanted to be the one to kill the Bride anyway – the rocket had left stinging shrapnel wounds all over his front, but nothing hurt more than his pride. He backed up a few steps, and took a running start off the ship.

* * *

The Bride set her jaw as the shadow of Robotnik's chair eclipsed her kneeling form. She got to her feet, although even with her weight on her good leg, she was in agony. "Well, now, my dear. It's rather unfortunate it had to end this way," Robotnik said with a confident smile. "Are you enjoying the shade from my seat of power?"

"It would have to be a pretty powerful seat to hold _you_ in the air," the Bride said with a grim smile.

"Petty insults…" Robotnik's smile vanished, and he slammed a new clip decisively into his rifle. "A sad choice of last words."

The Bride said nothing, but threw her sword, aiming for Robotnik's exposed head. He hastily elbowed the joystick on his chair that controlled it, and it drifted backwards, evading the sword easily. "Silly woman, throwing your sword never works."

The Bride was hit with a strong flash of nostalgia, hearing her old favorite exchange with Cottonmouth in her head ("Silly rabbit…" "…Trix are for kids."), but she shrugged it off and drew the knife at her side, throwing that too. Robotnik hadn't seen it before, so he was caught off-guard and dodged forward instead of back. The knife embedded itself in the mechanism keeping the chair afloat, which began to click rhythmically and spark.

"What? No!" The chair veered dangerously, and although Robotnik slammed the joystick in the other direction, he was unable to stop it entirely from listing to the left. "It was working so well! Again you've foiled my vehicle!" he took a shot at her, but as he began firing there was a loud pop from under the seat and it began spinning him counterclockwise, causing the shots to go wide. "No!"

The Bride drew Joruus's light saber and inspected it. Had the water damaged it? She extended the beam and took a few practice swings. No, it seemed to function well enough, although the balance was very hard to get used to. Still, it wouldn't be too much trouble to finish Robotnik once he dropped from the sky… which would hopefully be soon. He seemed physically strong, but not particularly skilled, and he was almost certainly slow-moving. "Are you going to come down on your own or wait for that thing to drop you?"

"I'll shoot you first, and then come down!" Robotnik fired at her on his next spin around, forcing her to fall back under cover. She winced, glancing at the bullet holes in the stone around her. She checked her own wounds, regretting that she hadn't used the knife to dig the bullets out, but she needn't have bothered; the high-powered rifle had managed to miss the bone on all three shots and had torn clean through her. How lovely. She was content to ride out the dangerous spinning phase of the battle behind cover, but hearing Robotnik bellow "_You_ again?" piqued her curiosity, and she peeked out from behind cover.

Shadow had arrived, standing on top of another stack of crates. "Robotnik… you look ridiculous. Like a spinning egg." Robotnik's eyelid, which was facing the Bride when Shadow finished his sentence, twitched rather nastily. "I hope you're sick of that ride, because you're coming down!" He drew his guns and pointed his magnum at the chair's sensitive undercarriage. _Click._ "Misfire?" The Bride remembered that Shadow had been thrown in the water, apparently at the same time as her. He tried the other gun, with no better results. "DAMmit!" he threw the guns aside and drew two of his Emeralds. "Chaos Lance!" A larger, faster version of the 'Chaos Spear' he had thrown at the Bride earlier shot out from the gems. Robotnik slammed on the abused joystick, but the blast still grazed his chair, shearing off whole plates of steel. The emperor's impromptu thrown could take no more; it coughed and dropped out of the air, unceremoniously spilling Robotnik onto the ground.

* * *

Shadow began to walk towards the doctor, pocketing the Emeralds in favor of Travis's Tsubaki beam katana. It didn't start. Growling, Shadow gave it a few good shakes, and it finally started. For once, he took his time. This wasn't the Robotnik he knew, but it was close enough. Whenever he was tempted to just put Eggman out of his misery, he would be able to look back at this moment and think, _but wait. I already have._

When Robotnik got to his feet, it was surprisingly fast. The enormous man actually rolled back onto his left shoulder and LEAPT to his feet, landing heavily on his armored boots. He was grimacing very widely, showing that one of his teeth had been knocked out on impact. "I _really_ hate hedgehogs," he said quietly, and opened fire one-handed with his assault rifle. The wider spray of bullets from firing one-handed actually served him well, as one of the outlying bullets struck Shadow in the side and buried itself in his pelvis as he ran out of the way. Screaming and clutching his side, Shadow fell as he ran, but turned it into a roll and managed to spin-dash behind cover. Robotnik fired futilely after him until the clip ran out, then discarded the rifle in evident disgust. "Is this how the Ultimate Life Form behaves?" he shouted after the hedgehog.

That did it. "Chaos Control." Shadow appeared in front of Robotnik, blade out, other hand clutching his side and trying to staunch the flow of blood. "Let's get this over with."

"I couldn't agree more." Robotnik drew his light saber and slashed at Shadow, who easily evaded. He stepped in for a counter, but the way he was predicting made his attacks predictable, and Robotnik easily blocked. They clashed blades several times before Robotnik worked up the courage to try and push Shadow off balance with his. It worked, staggering the hedgehog, but he raised his other arm and backhanded Robotnik before he could press his advantage. Shadow's hand came back bloody, and it registered to him that he had slashed Robotnik with his claws. "Little savage," Robotnik growled, walloping him with the saber. The blocked blow put pressure on Shadow's damaged pelvis, and he was quickly spilled to the ground. Robotnik slashed down at him, but Shadow tucked into a backwards roll and got clear, stabbing forward as he got up.

The move served to stop Robotnik's charge preemptively, but instead the doctor shot at him with the plasma blaster in his gauntlets, forcing Shadow to dodge and fall over again. Painfully aware of what all the sudden movements were doing to his wound, Shadow came up on his good knee and brought up a Chaos Emerald. "Chaos Rift!" The move opened a strange-looking tear between the two fighters, sucking in the next plasma bolt… and judging by the wind flowing into it, threatening to suck in anything else. Robotnik took a cautious step back. "Come any closer and you'll get to experience the inside of a quantum singularity, doctor," Shadow threatened.

"Impressive… and what a waste to use it merely as a shield. How long can you keep it up?" Robotnik asked. Shadow hoped the man couldn't see his expression behind the singularity… he was on the nose as usual. Still, it was only a distraction… digging his claws in, Shadow grimaced and pulled the bullet out. _Now what? I'm going to be too drained for another Chaos Spear… I'll have to just outspeed the fat freak._ He didn't know the Bride would save him the trouble.

* * *

The Bride saw her opening and she took it. Robotnik was entirely engrossed with Shadow's latest weird power, sucked in (metaphorically) through a combination of scientific curiosity and anticipation for it to drop. She dashed towards him, light saber ready. However, the man had to be given credit for good hearing, because she hadn't been all that loud, but he spun to face her. Their sabers clashed, making strange sounds as they sparked against each other. However, due to his injury, there was no question whose off-hand was quicker. He was effectively helpless to stop the Bride as she reached up and snatched his right eye out of the socket.

She wasn't expecting, however, the man's eye to come out bloodlessly, or with bare wires trailing behind it, or with a shower of sparks that caused her to flinch back and dropped the eye. It was sucked into the rift and forgotten. "A robot?" she asked. "Really?!" Robotnik's eye socket was coated with what looked like well-oiled black plastic.

"My eye!" he shouted rather redundantly. "Was that really necessary?" He forced her back with a swing of his sword, and shot at her with the gauntlet. She felt the plasma singe her cheek as it flew past, and determined not to let him get another shot with it. As he charged forward for another swing, she parried it to the side (he was an amateur at swordplay, no mistaking it) and slammed the back of the saber into the lens of the blaster on his left arm.

Again, the results were not entirely desirable. The focus crystal cracked, and when Robotnik tried firing it again in response, a constant stream of deep red flame burst from his arm instead. The Bride jumped back, but not before it lit her hair on fire, forcing her to power down her lightsaber and roll on the ground to extinguish the flames. She was no sooner extinguished than Robotnik turned the flames on her in earnest, forcing her back. "That could've gone better."

Once Robotnik was good and distracted, of course, Shadow dispelled the rift and came charging forward with laser blade ready to decapitate the doctor. Robotnik didn't hear him this time over the roar of the rushing flames; instead, he felt the vacuum of the void stop and saw it stop subtly altering the direction of the flames. "Shadow!" He turned around, spraying the flames at his waist level; Shadow was unable to stop before getting a face full of red flames. Screaming, he clutched at his face, rolled around on the ground (leaving a smeared trail of blood from his side), and eventually came to a stop, his breathing shallow.

Robotnik shook his arm experimentally, but the flames still didn't stop. He kicked Shadow once for good measure, and when he didn't get up, laughed. "That's _one_ down." He turned and swept the flames behind him at face height, apparently knowing the Bride would charge at him. Of course, she was ready, too, this time. She rolled under the flames and stabbed her light saber into his left upper arm. Again, she struck robotics; his left hand dropped the saber with a clatter, and its blade retracted, but he managed to bring up the elbow and catch her in the stomach with the steam, lighting her jumpsuit aflame. Shouting in surprise, she ran backwards, abandoning her saber, and jumped into the water to put the flames out.

She breached almost immediately, and saw that the flames had finally died out on Robotnik's gauntlet blaster. He began to chuckle again, starting towards her. "You've caused me more trouble than Shadow could have hoped to. It'll take me forever to get a ship out of here with my arms like this. What's your name, woman?"

The Bride blinked. She never gave her own name when she could avoid it, but Robotnik seemed to be something less than a fan of nicknames, and besides… it felt like he earned it. "It's Beatrix Kiddo."

Robotnik nodded. "Another name for the history books," he said, to himself as much as her.

"Sorry about the tactics. I prefer an honorable duel, but I didn't have time to find out if you'd agree to one." He broke eye contact with her, and she took the opportunity to look around for a way out. She saw the sword she had thrown at him earlier, sitting near the edge of the water. It would help, but he still had a pistol at his side. It would be a long shot.

Robotnik drew the pistol as if reading her mind, wincing as he held it in his left hand. "No, I don't think I would have. Not unless you challenged me to a duel of giant robots, possibly, and that's just not feasible around here. I'm afraid this is goodbye, Miss Kiddo."

"**Chaos.**"

* * *

Shadow's face was no longer on fire, but it still felt that way. He came out of his daze, but he was still woozy, and it wasn't improving with time. _Blood loss must be getting to me._ He weakly grabbed one of the Emeralds from his bandolier and just held it, enjoying the feeling of Chaos energy flowing steadily into his body. Then he looked into the multifaceted red gem and even that simple joy was shattered. His face was horribly burned from the flames, mostly bald, with skin missing everywhere. He could see the exposed muscles moving as his expression changed to horror… and then to rage. That sick clone of Eggman was responsible for this. He'd bear these scars forever. Thinking about it fueled Shadow's rage… and that gave him a dark new idea for how to use his powers. "I'm afraid this is goodbye," he heard Robotnik say, and that was the breaking point.

"**Chaos**,"he intoned, holding the Emerald high as he rolled over to aim his other hand at Robotnik. A red force field, like the ones he had used to protect himself from bullets, had formed over the doctor's head. Robotnik stopped what he was doing and raised a half-functional robot arm to claw at the bubble, but to no effect. His face was quickly turning as red as his remaining eye. Shadow got slowly to his feet, keeping his free hand trained on Robotnik. Once he was up, he clenched his hand into a fist. "**Control.**" Robotnik's head burst like an overripe watermelon as the force field dissipated, spilling all over his shoulders. "Sweet dreams, Eggman," Shadow said, and spat on the corpse.

There was a splash, and Shadow looked up to see the Bride grabbing a sword and starting cautiously towards him. Shadow raised his Emerald, but to no effect – he was completely tapped out, from all three of the gems. Putting it away, he drew the Tsubaki and charged towards her – he would have to beat her on speed and speed alone… or hope that she passed out from blood loss first.

Despite the fact that he came at her at well over a hundred miles per hour (he didn't want to push himself past two or three hundred with the bullet wound), she blocked successfully, windmilling back as his momentum pushed her back several paces. He was on her again almost instantly, but she managed to block each strike, no matter how fast it came. "Why can't I _hit _you?!" Shadow said through gritted teeth, punctuating each word with a strike of his weapon.

"I don't make people's heads explode with gems. Here's what I do." She parried his next strike, despite the fact that he had gotten behind her in the time it takes most people to blink, and nearly took his arm off with her counter. "I can say, with no exaggeration, that I am the deadliest woman alive with a sword."

"Funny…" Shadow was forced back, out of the range of her blade. "That's what it said in your profile. First line of 'Bio'. But I'm in no mood for that 'hard work' bullcrap." He took an especially impressive overhead swing at her… which she blocked expertly. To add potential injury to perceived insult, the beam flickered out on his katana. "Oh, come on!" Thinking quickly, Shadow grabbed her sword by the pommel and rammed it a few inches into the ground, then punched her in the face. "How are you in hand-to-hand?"

She caught the second punch, which was traveling somewhat faster than a major-league pitch. "Pretty good. To be honest, I do know one fancy trick." Shadow tried to jump back, but to no avail. "It's called the

Five

Point

Palm

Exploding

Heart

Technique."

Then she slammed him in the chest with an open palm **one** and Shadow instantly knew something was very, fundamentally wrong. He struggled to get out of her grip **two** but it was like being caught in an iron vice and she had no trouble landing another hit on him. For Shadow, each blow seemed like an eternity **three** but even HIS body wasn't responding fast enough. A desperate idea occurred to him and he reached over with his free hand to grab the handle **four** of her forgotten sword. Yanking it out of the ground, he swung it as fast as he could-

And there was a wet noise similar to the sound of pulling one's shoe out of quicksand, and the Bride's grip came loose. Shadow fell flat on his back and the fifth palm strike passed just over him. The Bride stood still as a statue, bent over from the missed palm strike. "Shadow…" she whispered. "Could you do me a favor?"

"…Yeah?" Shadow asked. The adrenaline rush was taking its toll, and he couldn't muster up the strength to move at all. It felt like his body was made of lead.

"I have a daughter… B.B.… get off this island, and, make sure she's safe, all right?" The Bride didn't wait for Shadow's consent before toppling over forwards, her head sliding off her shoulders to roll away. The headless body collapsed onto Shadow, pinning him down. Weakly, Shadow grabbed his communicator and raised it to his face. Everything was starting to go blurry, and when he mumbled out the distress call, his own voice echoed in his head. Unable to cling to consciousness any longer, Shadow passed out, replacing the morbid reality of his situation with the memory of Maria's kind words and touch…

**End of Chapter**

**Notes: Robotnik's various incarnations can be pretty confusing, so I went to the Sonic wikia and went by the reference of Robotnik Prime (Archie Comics). He does indeed have bionic eyes, ears, and left arm. I estimated this was the one Clement's been using because he wears armor, has the red eyes, and is the version who is actually Snively's uncle (Snively's mentioned in Clement's fight with Ban). He also has grey-green armor instead of red because he used Ginger's carapace to repair it. I'm pretty sure everything I had him use is canon with Clement's story, although I made up the joystick because it wasn't mentioned how he controlled the chair form of the vehicle. Maybe Mystique's base had an Atari? XD He also has a broken collarbone from fighting Ban, so I had him favor his left arm and (when he had to use the right) do things with it that wouldn't require much shoulder movement.**

**The Bride was easier, since I've seen both Kill Bills. Great character, really. I know her death is extremely cheesy (the extremely long wait for the head to fall off), but it felt fitting for the protagonist of that movie. Hence some of the stylistic touches for the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique, which is so legendary it (for example) merits a paragraph for each word in its title.**

**Shadow, being an antihero but also kind of a nice guy here, needed a fatal flaw. Now, I'm sure none of us want it to be brooding… I initially considered addiction to the Chaos energy, but that needs more buildup. So I went with good old fashioned pride and arrogance. This is a guy who will remind you that is epitaph is Ultimate Life Form. He has a big ego. Check out how many times in this chapter he does something stupid or dark because of his pride. Or take my word for it – its most of them. So that's why burning his face will cause him to invent Chaos Your Head Asplode.**

**As for what happened to get the Bride on the boat or Robotnik's failed attempt to score a helicopter in the three minutes Shadow was gone for… your guess is as good as mine.**

**Robotnik got to appear first, but the Bride gets far more POV time. This was mostly subconscious on my part.  
**


	4. Intermission: Back to the Frying Pan

**Bleh. I fudged much of this, especially the ending. I couldn't figure out anything meaningful to do with a Lex scene conveying that the cannon is ready to fire. Ah well. Enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I own none of the characters used within, except for the ones that I do indeed own.  
**

**A Winner Is Two: Chiaroscuro**

**First Round Aftermath: Back to the Frying Pan**

_"Shadow?" His fever seemed to cool at her merest touch._

_Her touch was kind and gentle, but her voice was cracking with despair. "Maria?" he croaked._

"SHADOW." Shadow's eyes shot open. Gilly was staring down at him, frowning. One of her imps peered at him from a higher vantage point. It was nice to see a face that wasn't trying to shoot at him, but it just made the daily reminder that Maria was several decades dead and buried that much harder to take. He tried to swallow, and found his throat unpleasantly dry.

Shadow opened his mouth, and was immediately sorry he did. "What happ_rrrrggghhh…_" He screwed his face up in pain, which caused more pain, causing him to reflexively contort his face further, and he was trapped in an agonizing cycle for a moment before he forced his face back to a neutral position. This allowed him to actually listen to what Gilly was saying.

"…enough topical anesthetic and aloe vera to treat a small horse, so just try not to speak or move your face for a couple more minutes while it kicks in, okay?" Shadow nodded weakly. Gilly sighed, lines creasing her forehead. "Look, I've got to help deal with the other patients, okay?" Shadow nodded again, guessing that he had been brought to one of the extraction points.

Shadow gingerly sat up to take stock of his surroundings, and immediately wished he hadn't. The improvised sick bay around him was the stuff PTSD nightmares were made of. Klokateers and Patriots sat or lay on the floor all around, spilling blood from great holes in their chests or clutching stumps that used to be limbs. A female Patriot sat with one arm pressed to her exposed skull, physically holding her head together.

Even one of Sakyo's demons was present, a scrawny-looking anthropomorphic gray frog with brown spikes all along its back and arms. Its jaw was wired shut, and its eyes were covered over with bandages. "Dawn is coming," it whispered cryptically through gritted teeth.

"I have no bloody fucking idea what you're talking about," Gilly muttered, pressing her palm to its chest. "Look, just try to relax, we're on our way out." The entire room shook for a moment, and Gilly caught Shadow looking around. "BORED didn't cut corners everywhere," she said with feigned cheer. "You can hardly tell we're in a helicopter when the door's shut, it's so quiet."

"Helicopter?" Shadow asked carefully. It only hurt a little – the balms were doing their work. "Are we on Ofdensen's ride out of here? No, it's too small… one of the transport copters?" Gilly nodded. "Damn it…" he sat up to take further stock of himself. His belt and bandoleer had been removed. There were bandages around his hip, and on several cuts on his sides and back from the fight. "Did you remove the bullet?"

"Yeah, with tweezers. You're really something – you got shot in the pelvis with an AK, and the bone's barely chipped. They don't make humans like they make you..." Gilly sighed. "If they did, I wouldn't be desperately trying to remember my year and a half of pre-med. I'd still try and keep the activity to a minimum."

"Yeah, I'm due for some R&R. I already collected my pay, too." Shadow peeked under the bandages, and laughed bitterly. "And here I was worried you'd shave me." Still, there was a nagging feeling that something wasn't right. "Did Tashigi ever get to the battle?" No, that wasn't it… was he missing his weapons? No, he'd ditched them… Travis's sword had defective batteries or something, and the guns had been soaked through.

"Yeah, we arrived together. She's leaving with her crew… she didn't even trust us to Medivac her wounded, because – get this – she's never heard of Honolulu, our destination! I left her with a few of the imps as guards. Oh, and I actually wanted to shave the wound, but we had no time and no electric razor so…"

"WHERE ARE MY EMERALDS?" Shadow suddenly blurted out. Gilly stared at him sidelong for a long, uncomfortable minute. "Sorry… but… no, seriously. Where's the bandoleer of gems I was wearing?" Shadow didn't wait for Gilly's response, he had plenty of time while she was opening her mouth to perceive the lack of recognition on her face and he didn't have TIME for this, goddammit! "What do you mean you don't know?" he yelled, skipping an entire line of the exchange through the sheer impatience found in the super-fast.

"I didn't see them when you were brought in!" Gilly yelled. "The medic brought you onto the copter in a hurry! Where… where's our medic?"

"The gems?" An unwounded Patriot with a white coat over his button-down and suit pants scratched his head. "I took them off so's I could check if ya were breathin'. I guess we left 'em behind!" Shadow snarled, his face awash in fresh pain from twisting into a mask of fury. "Don't blame me, ya freak, I was just tryin' ta save yer life an' all!"

"I – I don't even..." Shadow shook his head. "Have we been in the air long?" Ignoring the stabbing pains where he had been shot, he made his way over to the window. "We've barely even cleared the HQ… good. I wasn't out so long. Anybody have some guns they can spare?"

Gilly rubbed her forehead as Shadow collected sidearms and a set of holsters from Patriots. "You can't seriously be thinking of going back down there for some gems, no matter how magical they are! Look, working for Sakyo was a blast – my last boss was a real micro-manager – but I'm not wagering that he survives to get off the island. Besides, what are we gonna do, land so you can get out?"

"Not exactly." Shadow made his way over to the double doors at the back of the cabin. "I'll be in touch if I get out of this hellhole alive." Holstering the guns, he forced the doors open and allowed himself to be sucked out into the pre-dawn sky.

* * *

"Pretty pretty sparkly sparkly… if I could gaze at your beauteous wonder, I would. Or is it wondrous beauty? Come to think of it, are these things opalescent, or convalescent, or luminescent, or phosphorescent? Post-pubescent from the fertile crescent? Oh, hello!"

"Red and black mask, easily distracted, lots of crazy talk… You must be Deadpool," Shadow said with a grimace, walking up to the mercenary.

"Hahahaaaaa…" Deadpool laughed nervously. "Of course I'm Deadpool! To insinuate that I look anything like Deathstroke the Terminator is just crazy talk! I'm a hundred and eight percent original!"

"I didn't mention…" Shadow realized he was in danger of being sidetracked. "Look, I need those emeralds. They're mine. I dropped them." _He's a psycho… I should treat him with kid gloves._

"Finders keepers, furry dude." Deadpool grabbed the Emeralds from the bandoleer and began juggling them. "These things are perfectly weighted, and they hardly whisper in my ear at all! Certainly not as much as my headphones!" Shadow looked less than amused. "Well, don't I even get a finder's fee?"

"How about bullets?" Shadow drew one of the pistols. "I've had a bad night, Deadpool, and you're testing my patience." Deadpool cautiously put down the Emeralds… before he started laughing.

"You got a D+, by the way. Not even passing. As for the bullets, sir…" Deadpool pulled a gun from behind his back fully twice the length of Shadow's. "You might not want to mess with the guy who's aware he's fictional." The gun _unfolded,_ doubling its length further.

Shadow gritted his teeth and prepared himself to make a bullet-dodging dash for the Emeralds. He needn't have bothered. Deadpool's head was suddenly and violently separated from his neck, soaring straight up and landing more or less in the same place, but backwards.

Tashigi blinked back tears. "That's for Smoker, you son of a bitch." Wiping her eyes on her jacket sleeve, she looked at Shadow, staring at his face. She looked ready to cry again. "I'm so sorry… I wasn't there in time to help you, or my men… Smoker would've gotten down there in time to back you up…"

"It's alright," Shadow said hesitantly, putting the bandoleer back on and replacing the Emeralds. "I engaged too quickly and made some dumb moves."

Tashigi sniffled. "I should've been there to cover you."

Shadow looked at his reflection in the Emerald. Every scar left on his body called into question just how 'Ultimate' he really was, and he was looking pretty pathetic right now. "Yeah, you should've. But now you need to protect your crew."

"No, now I've got to deal with this bastard!" Tashigi shouted. Shadow turned.

Despite the decapitation, Deadpool was lurching towards them. "Beware my power, mortals!" He shouted… shortly before collapsing into a heap. "Damn motor neurons. Hey, do you mind beheading me again so I can rehead myself properly?

"Go on, Shadow," Tashigi said. "I'll deal with the nut job." Laying down her own katana, she drew and extended another of Travis's old beam katanas… the dark gray one. Shadow wasn't about to argue with her while she was wearing her current expression.

As he left, he noticed his communicator also lying on the ground, and scooped it up. "Shadow reporting in. Robotnik and the Bride are neutralized. I'm wounded, but still on my feet. Who needs me?" There was only white noise. "Sakyo? Ofdensen? Base, do you copy?"

_Damn_, he thought. _It's probably something with the communication system. I should go see if I can get that thing up and running again.

* * *

_

_Lotus Eater Cannon is in range. Scanning for targets._

**End of Intermission**

**The proper second battle is in-progress.  
**


	5. Round 2: Where Loyalty Lies

**Author's Notes coming tomorrow. EDIT: Author's Notes are here, albeit late.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters used within.**

**A Winner Is Two: Chiaroscuro**

**Second Battle: With Mystique vs. Mr. Incredible and Kakashi**

**Where Loyalty Lies**

Mr. Incredible could hardly suppress a roar of frustration as he prowled the hallways of the headquarters. Had the place always had this confusing a layout? Well, it hadn't helped that increasingly through the night, he'd come across a door that was sealed off or a hallway clogged with corpses from a battle long over. At best, he'd come across a few henchmen too wounded to fight. These people he had dutifully carried to the nearest sick bay and left there to wait their turn for medical attention. It didn't matter that they were working against him – that was mostly because he had seen the light about the guys writing his checks, and they hadn't. It didn't sit right with him to let them die.

Still, though, the joy of helping people was dulled by the fact that he kept just missing the action. He hadn't met anybody important enough to have their own dossier, aside from accidentally meeting Kakashi and Jade again several times each in the hallways (it had been unanimously agreed that they should split up), and meeting Commodore Smoker once. Smoker always seemed to Incredible to be like the classic 'bad cop', but the military super turned out to have been a victim of a double-cross himself, and when Incredible explained their situation, Smoker simply said he was going to go search the hangar and dock levels of the base.

Then he turned a corner and practically walked right into his greatest nemesis. The absence of the massive, flame-shaped plume of hair was jarring, and the scars were new, but the black-and-white costume, short, broad build and the burning blue eyes were hard to mistake. He seemed to have swapped out his futuristic array of gadgets (and his snazzy but ill-advised cape) for more traditional (if still very modern) military equipment. "Syndrome?" Incredible asked, picking his jaw up from the floor.

"And here I thought you were going to call me Buddy again," the man said with a twisted smile. "Seriously, Bob – yeah, I know your name is Bob, what of it? – did you really think I'd go away that easily? You thought little old Syndrome would get sucked into the jet turbine, suffer the old accidental Bond villain death, and everything would be rainbows and sunshine for you and yours? It ain't that easy, pal. I don't go away, no matter how hard you try to forget me – and you've obviously forgotten SOMETHING, since you got duped into working for villains on a volcanic island again. I mean, REALLY."

"How did you even get here?" Incredible asked, ignoring most of what came out of the man's mouth. "I mean, there's been a giant bubble up around the island until maybe last night. You're not with Solidus and the others, are you? That'd just be the icing on the villain cake. No… wait… you're one of the inmates, aren't you?" Syndrome made a face. "Please tell me you're an inmate. That would give me back some faith in the world."

"Inmates… I can't believe you still think these schlubs are inmates!" Syndrome laughed, although his eyes stayed on Incredible. "You're a card, Incredible. Nah, I got contracted by these BORED guys for some concealable recording equipment. You know they televised the whole thing so people could get their sick kicks, right? I got a free subscription with my payment – I thought watching you be Captain Oblivious would get old, but it just _didn't._ It was hilarious. Now, they should've hired me to do architecture, because seriously, building the command center above the lav-"

"Televised?" Incredible asked in sheer disbelief. Syndrome grinned like a Cheshire cat and nodded. "That's what this is about? Selling season tickets to some sick gladiator combat?" Mr. Incredible felt sick to his stomach. This wasn't some world domination plot or revenge scheme. This was human cockfighting on an enormous scale. He hadn't even guessed - but it all made sense now…

Syndrome continued to smile a brain-hurting smile. "Well, it's been real seeing my old hero, but I've really gotta bounce. Empires to rebuild, babies to kidnap – yours, in fact. He's not too old yet for another shot at that, and his little combo platter is just too good to pass up." Syndrome turned and left – not with a dramatic cape sweep, like he would have one ten-inch mane of red hair ago, but he RAN. He had kept his cool admirably, but even a righteous hero like Incredible knew fear when he smelled it.

Incredible took off at a sprint, hoping to catch up quickly to the shorter and less super-powered villain, but apparently he hadn't been the only one jogging since the Omnidroid incident. Syndrome was RUNNING from Incredible with a haste that was, all things considered, completely appropriate. The fact that he had come to monologue without Incredible being at all helpless was the strange part. Maybe Syndrome had gone off his rocker.

Syndrome turned at seemingly every corner he came to, keeping Incredible's top speed advantage at a minimum. At around the third turn, he tossed a live grenade back over his shoulder. Incredible batted the grenade away cautiously, but it was only a regular fragmentation grenade of the type armies had used for the better part of a century. "You're crazy if you think this would hurt me, Syndrome!" Incredible called out.

"Oh no, I'm a CRAZY bomb-throwing anarchist! I hope no superheroes come to subdue me!" Syndrome called back, scooting around another corner with a laugh. Incredible slid around the corner and saw Syndrome running into an elevator – a keycard-activated elevator, lending some credence to his story – and pressing a button. He was halfway to the door when it closed on Syndrome winking at him. Undaunted, Incredible wedged his fingers into the door and pulled it open by force.

There was nobody in the elevator. Incredible, however, had been around long enough to know a few tricks of the trade, and sure enough, when he looked up, a panel in the ceiling was still sliding into place. "Poor choice, Syndrome! Once you're in that shaft, you're trapped!" Incredible marched across the elevator and pushed the panel up. That was about when the floor fell out beneath him.

There was a long drop that pushed Incredible's stomach into his throat, and then a deafening crash. Undaunted, Incredible climbed out of the rubble, and dusted himself off. "That actually hurt a little," he admitted brightly. Then his mood soured as he looked up. "That looks like a lot of floors to climb back up."

* * *

Shadow was racing through the complex at his usual breakneck speed, but he was starting to see less and less people left alive. _God damn it, I hope one of the BORED members is still alive and here. There's not going to be any other extraction points._ His bandages stung against his raw face whenever he moved too fast, but he ignored it. _I suppose I should see what happened to the communications tower._

Shadow's route took him straight through the command center. When he got there, he was greeted with the usual scattering of corpses. At this point, it was no longer surprising. However, Kakashi nonchalantly standing around as Jade tapped away at a computer terminal was a little different. "What are you guys doing in here?" Shadow asked. Kakashi immediately craned his neck to stare warily at Shadow; Curtiss showed no reaction whatsoever. "I don't think there's any point to keeping the cameras rolling now… or are you trying to get the comm. System back up?"

"Actually, I'm the one who brought the communications down," Jade said brightly. He steamrolled right over Shadow's cry of objection to add, "It's really quite simple when you know a few lighting-based Artes. I didn't even need to kill the Klokateers… that part was their fault, actually." Jade pulled a flash drive from the computer and slipped it into his pocket. "Here, watch. Spark Wave." A globe of crackling electricity surrounded the computer and shocked it repeatedly. The entire computer bank shorted out and began to smoke, although mercifully nothing exploded.

"What did you just do?" Shadow cried. "What did you just download? Why'd you destroy the computers? Why'd you bring down communications? There's a goddamn war going on around us, and you're sitting around vandalizing company property? What the hell kind of Enforcers are you guys?"

Kakashi blinked. "Nobody told you that many of us had decided to abandon BORED before they could stab us in the back?" Shadow could have hit himself in the face. Of course. Some of the other Enforcers were betraying BORED; Sakyo had mentioned it in passing. "I guess they thought you could figure it out on your own," the ninja said, drawing the same conclusion as Shadow. "Listen, you should come with us. They're planning to kill all of us so they don't have to pay us, and to tie up loose ends. Smoker and I said we'd had enough, and that didn't help either."

"I have the evidence we need," Jade added helpfully, holding up the flash drive. "The flip-side to BORED installing eyes and ears all over the place is it makes them painfully easy to incriminate. Even if I can't find the identities of the rest of them on this data, we have three of them proven beyond a reasonable doubt to be responsible for mass kidnapping, torture, extortion and murder. I'm pretty sure I saw other names implicated in here, too…"

Shadow made a dash for Jade, jumping and reaching his hand out to grab the flash drive. He was inches away when he felt a hand close around his ankle. Kakashi whipped Shadow around and threw him against a 240-inch projection screen on the far wall. Shadow grunted and looked up, rubbing the back of his head. The throw had left him at the bottom of the room's several terraced levels of computers, staring up at Jade and Kakashi. And Kakashi had clearly been holding back more than the crazy-looking red eye he was showing now. "I'd hoped you'd be willing to join us," Jade said, his omnipresent smile adding a chill to the words. "Can't you see these men are utterly reprehensible?"

"That's kind of a strong way of putting it," Shadow argued. "Especially since you're wrong. I don't think they're going to weasel out of paying me, since they already have." He pointed to his gems. "Priceless, no matter the exchange rate. How do I know you're not lying to me about more than their motive?"

"You've seen it!" Kakashi seethed. "You've seen the men and women – and dammit, even children! – out there fighting each other, dying, trying desperately to stay alive, all while BORED makes money off showing it to people around the world! It's not even their most efficient way of making money, according to the files!"

"BORED told me I was fighting criminals," Shadow snapped back, "and I have no reason yet to disbelieve them! The nicest person I've met was Beatrix Kiddo, and she was merely a loving mother in addition to being a vicious assassin. My other experiences with the Contestants have been two rounds with a man who I personally know to be after world domination, and three separate, crazed monsters with powers rivaling my own!"

Kakashi started to retort, but Jade put a hand on his shoulder. "Forget it, Kakashi. He's not going to listen." Jade strode out of the room; Shadow considered going after him, but figured Kakashi would pull the same trick again. And it wouldn't pay to repeatedly show his back to a ninja. "I'm going ahead to secure an escape route," Jade said. "We're flying out of here come daylight, so consider sunrise your five-minute warning." And with that, he was gone.

"Well, Shadow, I guess this means it's time for a battle." Kakashi formed an elaborate hand gesture, and then another, and then another… Shadow got to his feet in alarm when he saw the way Kakashi's hands were flashing. "You are fast… but can you outrun lightning?"

"Maybe I won't have to." Shadow grabbed all three of the Chaos Emeralds on his bandolier. They thrummed with power, and he called out to it. The emeralds responded inside his mind, filling him with a euphoric warmth and surrounding him in red glow.

"You don't know what you're in for!" Kakashi's hands stuck in one last position. "Raiton: Rairyūdan no Jutsu!" A thick column of cyan lightning flared up from Kakashi's back. It curved against the ceiling, coiling around the room's upper reaches. As the tip dipped back down towards Shadow, a pair of red eyes opened up, and the head of a dragon formed, opening its jaws to roar with a thunderclap.

"And here I was worried… well, I'm in the mood to be creative! Chaos Dragon!" Shadow concentrated all of the chaos energy into a single orb floating around the Emeralds, and forced it upwards. Like Kakashi's lightning, the red force took on the shape of a serpentine dragon, crashing head-on into Kakashi's as it started to drop towards Shadow. The two intermingled and started to dissolve, raining crimson bolts of energy around the room. Shadow took cover from the bolts, and from the secondary sparks of energy that the computers let off when the bolts struck them. "Where are you?" he growled, popping up as soon as the fury cooled.

A knee collided with his upper back hard enough to launch him off his feet, slamming him against one of the lower corners of the room. "For a hedgehog, you have a very forward-focused field of view," Kakashi mused. "So, are you going to keep trading fireworks displays with me, or am I going to see the famous speed you were hired for?"

* * *

Mr. Incredible thanked God again for his superpowers as he reached the top of the next stairwell. Any normal man would be having a heart attack about now. That had been a lot of climbing.

He almost turned right to the next stairwell, but a figure leaning against the wall caught his eye. There he was. "Seven minutes," Syndrome said. "Impressive. I'll have to try dunking you in the lava next."

"You're not Syndrome," Mr. Incredible asserted. "It was a good impersonation, I'll grant you that. But he was too proud to attack me with weapons he didn't design, and he wouldn't have bothered with an elevator drop that wouldn't kill me."

By now, the faux Syndrome had reshaped himself into a toned, fierce-looking woman with wine-red hair, blue skin and yellow slitted eyes. Mystique, another of the Enforcers. "You're paying attention. I'm glad I didn't trust the line in the dossier that called you a 'complete moron.'"

"Mystique," Incedible began. "Why'd you try to kill me? Don't tell me you haven't realized what BORED is doing? Of course you have, you _told_ me when you were in disguise! Mystique, it goes beyond the prisoner thing. They're even planning to rub us out after they're done here."

"You don't give them enough credit," Mystique countered. "I've messed up once already, and I didn't get dropped into a shark tank. However, I did get a ticket to see Smoker die." Incredible blinked; he had only seen Smoker an hour ago. "They're trying to kill the Enforcers that ARE BETRAYING THEM. Shadow, Jiraiya and I are still getting paid. It's not like they're even the most evil guys I've worked for… I used to have a skull on my belt buckle as part of my uniform."

Incredible laughed nostalgically. "Really? That's classic!" Wait… he couldn't get sidetracked. "Seriously, I need to find those guys from BORED. I'm gonna go get them, capture them, bring them to justice. It doesn't even matter if they own this island, there are international laws…"

"You don't get it. I'm working for them. Present ongoing tense." Mystique's face softened. "Mr. Incredible… Mr. Parr… I've got a job to do, but I'm doing it for people like us. People who were born different… special. You had to go into hiding for years. You know what I'm talking about."

"Wait, let me get this straight." Incredible rubbed his temples. "You're doing dirty work for a bunch of rich, kidnapping, gladiator-arena wannabes so that you can _raise money for a human rights group?"_

"Mutant rights," Mystique corrected. "I know, my methods are too extreme to ever win your approval – I don't give a damn about that. I just want you to know why I'm giving you this deal – give up on this stupid, pointless quest to bring these men to justice through a system they own, and I'll smuggle you off the island with me instead of spending the rest of my night trying to figure out a way to kill you."

"I'm charmed, but unlike you, I have standards." Incredible cracked his knuckles. "And killing is below them, so I hope you don't mind waking up with a bump on the head and another failure to explain to those forgiving, savvy bosses. The ones who build their lair over a volcano."

Mystique shook her head, stripping off her ammo belts, weapons, and holsters. Incredible frowned. _What's she planning now?_ The blue mutant tossed a pipe bomb into the air and dashed forward on all fours, shifting as she ran. By the time she made the leap, she was a full-sized tiger, and she caught the bomb in her mouth before her leap carried her right into Incredible.

Mr. Incredible's superhero experience paid off. He had been attacked by shapeshifters before, and he had been attacked by tigers before, so he unflinchingly grabbed the tiger by the torso and held it at arm's length. "Nice try." Mystique's slitted eyes flashed out from the tiger's face before her body changed again – this time to a moderately large snake, which was much narrower around.

His mouth opened in surprise, which was unfortunate. Before Mr. Incredible could regain his grip, the snake had struck, its face lashing into his and – wait, did she cram her head into his mouth? He grabbed her again and pulled her out, but he still felt a weight on his tongue – she had left the grenade in his mouth!

He reached to pull it out, but the snake changed again, this time into a hummingbird, and made a motion to peck at his eyes. He made a few grabs for her. She was too fast, and by his fifth or sixth fistful of air, she was back in human form by her weapons. "Please let this kill you," she muttered. _Lucky she didn't prime the grenade, _Incredible thought, right before she picked up her pistol and shot a round directly into his crammed-open mouth.

* * *

Shadow dashed backwards along the wall, locking into a slide as he drew a pistol and emptied half a clip in Kakashi's direction. Kakashi dove undercover as soon as he saw the pistol and popped back up as soon as the bullets ceased, tossing a trio of shuriken in an interception path with the speed and direction he had last seen Shadow move in. Shadow leapt off the wall to dodge, curled into a ball, and abruptly changed direction mid-air, slamming into the desk Kakashi was using as cover and cracking the particle board it was primarily built of. Kakashi cursed and leapt at Shadow with a kunai knife, abandoning his cover.

Kakashi was more grateful for his Sharingan eye than he had been for a long time. Granted, Shadow's Chaos techniques weren't exactly 'jutsu' and couldn't be copied, and granted, Shadow's hit-and-run fighting style didn't make enough eye contact for the suggestion to take hold. No, the truly useful part of his Sharingan tonight was the most basic component – the part that sped up his perception. There was a difference between reacting to the movements of a normal ninja – even a Jonin-level – and reacting to the movements of the life form known as Shadow the Hedgehog.

Shadow uncurled and parried the kunai with the top of his pistol. His free hand drew another pistol and emptied three shots into Kakashi's face, with a fourth ricocheting off his hitai-ite. 'Kakashi' was replaced in a puff of smoke with the two-hours-dead corpse of a Klokateer… with an exploding tag attached and just about to curl and smoke at the edges. Shadow kicked the corpse away with an utterance, and curled into a ball to ride the shockwave. He landed on one of the room's upper levels, and caught a flash of steel in the red glow of the floor-mounted emergency lights (the dueling dragons having knocked out all the regular lights a moment ago). A few bullets flashed out at the steel, perforating… another dead Klokateer with a sword across his lap.

_It's fascinating…_ thought Kakashi. _For all his strangeness, Shadow's technique is like a parallel evolution of the shinobi. He moves with extreme speed, flinging high-velocity metal projectiles against low-level threats. He's skilled at close-range combat as well, and uses fantastic energy-based powers to neutralize more skilled opponents. He hires himself out for jobs that require powerful individuals. We're really not so different, but I don't think he has what I have – the Will of Fire._

Kakashi dropped from the ceiling, his hands already flashing through signs as he fell. He grasped his right arm as it started to glow with power. "Raikiri!" Shadow saw the glow and heard the chirping before he heard Kakashi's invocation, and quickly dashed out of the way. Kakashi had been expecting this, and immediately started running when he landed, chasing Shadow. _Nice try, but can you outrun the lightning cutter?_ Shadow dashed to the corpse, dropping one of his guns, and grabbed the sword, whipping it around in a desperate attempt to counter Kakashi's charge.

Kakashi's Sharingan allowed him to see and evade the attack, but the dodge carried him out of reach of Shadow's small frame. His hand missed the hedgehog by a couple of inches, and punched through the corpse behind him, all but tearing it in half. Shadow used the time Kakashi spent extruding his hand from the corpse to slash again with his newly-acquired sword. Kakashi spun backwards and parried the blade with a kunai in his left hand. Continuing his spin, he delivered a gore-soaked right hook to Shadow's face, which elicited a scream of pain and a stumble.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed. "You must have a pretty nasty wound under those bandages." As Shadow was straightening up, he slashed with the kunai. Shadow blocked clumsily and got a backhand to the face with Kakashi's free hand, laying him out flat on his back. Not one to waste an opportunity, Kakashi flashed through the hand signs for a kage bunshin, who jumped over Shadow and pinned his arms. Kakashi pinned Shadow's legs with his own knees, and pulled back his kunai knife. "I'm sorry it had to end this way."

The door behind Kakashi's bunshin, along with the frame around it, suddenly exploded as Mr. Incredible came charging into the room, swinging an I-beam like a baseball bat. He was coughing and rubbing his eyes, and Kakashi caught a diluted whiff of tear gas from the hallway. "Show yourself, you… you she-devil!" he yelled between coughs. Kakashi's distraction (and that of his clone) only caused him to slip a little – but that little was enough for Shadow to twist his sword and dig it slightly into the leg of the doppelganger. The clone grunted in shock and pain, squeezing Shadow's sword arm and making him drop the blade; however, Shadow was able to yank his other arm free and grab his Emeralds.

Kakashi backed off without waiting to see what Shadow was about to do, and this proved prudent as the hedgehog gave a shout of "Chaos Blast!" The technique put him in the epicenter of a powerful concussive blast, vaporizing the kage bunshin and fragmenting the nearby furniture and computer equipment. Even the sword and corpse were launched clear. "Chaos…" Shadow began, but it was a feint – he waited until Kakashi had already begun to sidestep, and then drew and fired another pistol. Kakashi turned his sidestep into a leap, but bullets were faster than any projectile he normally had to deal with, and he wasn't completely able to avoid being shot in the upper left arm and left thigh.

He rolled behind cover, cursing his luck. Those Emeralds were too much of a wild card. He would have to use _that _technique. He wasn't looking forward to using it right after Raikiri when he had already been in a fight that day, but he couldn't afford to pull any punches here. "Goodbye, Kakashi," Shadow said coldly. Kakashi turned in shock, and received a punch in the wounded shoulder, causing him to flinch. He'd lost his target, and Shadow had gotten behind him in the second it took him to assess his wounds and next move. A kick to his thigh suggested that Shadow was perhaps going for irony, and the next words confirmed it. "I'm sorry it had to end this way." Shadow raised two Emeralds in his right hand. "Chaos Ri-"

"KAMUI!" Kakashi locked his eye on a new target – the two Emeralds – with absolute focus. Space itself began to twist and distort around the Emeralds, causing Shadow to reel back in surprise. He shouted in another layer of surprise and reached back for the Emeralds, but it was too late… they were gone. "Don't bother looking for them. There's no trick." Kakashi's breath burned in his lungs from the massive chakra expenditure, but he forced himself to keep his cool as he stabbed forward with the kunai. Shadow dodged and punched him away, reaching for his last two pistols. "Your precious gems are gone – and they aren't coming back any time soon."

"You have no idea what kind of pain you're about to be in!" Shadow screamed, but Kakashi parried the guns with his knife and his bare hand, pushing them up and out of the way. He prepared to stab Shadow again, but more gunfire erupted, and he felt bullets tearing into the back of his vest, bruising his back and pressing him forward into Shadow's arms. In a vulnerable position, Kakashi vanished in a burst of leaves – the technique was all too easy for another ninja to track, but it threw off the less experienced Shadow and Mystique, giving him time to regroup under cover in the center of the room.

* * *

"Mystique!" Shadow shouted, "please tell me you're not with them." His heart was still pounding from the furious battle with Kakashi, and his wrists and ankles were still sore from the handhold Kakashi had on them. The ninja warrior was by far the fastest human Shadow had ever dealt with, held a massive arsenal of offensive and defensive tricks that kept him hitting hard and out of Shadow's crosshairs, and was just cold enough to get the job done. He had more options than Shadow or that 627 monster in a battle, and more raw power than Robotnik or the Bride. There was no question why BORED had hired him.

"I shot him and not you. I shouldn't have to tell you," Mystique grumbled. "I – oh, crap, nice face. I heard you were fighting Robotnik. I take it he did that to you?" Shadow nodded, frowning. He opened his mouth, but Mystique cut him off. "You walked away… did he?" Shadow shook his head. "Good man. I would've liked to have done it myself, but knowing he's dead is better than nothing. Hey, listen, I have to switch opponents with you."

"There you are, you witch!" Mr. Incredible's eyes had apparently cleared up somewhat, and he was marching down the stairs towards them with his I-beam ready. "You burned my uvula. Do you even know what that does to my gag reflex?" He swung his improvised bat, but both Mystique and Shadow ducked. Mystique flipped away to a lower level of the room, while Shadow rolled back and emptied a clip of ammunition into the 'i' logo on the hero's chest. "Yeah, that's not going to work on me!" Incredible shouted, bringing his beam down vertically. Shadow leaped clear and slid to a stop atop the tables.

"I can't do any significant damage to him with any of my weapons," Mystique explained. "He's more or less invulnerable to anti-personnel firearms and explosives. Your dossier says you can take down helicopters and small mecha unarmed, so I'm leaving this one to you. I'll take care of Kakashi." Incredible jumped down the stairs and took a swing at her, and she turned into a raven long enough to fly back up to the top of the room. "One more thing – he's pissed."

Shadow sighed, reaching for his Chaos Emeralds. "Son of a bitch!" he swore upon realizing he only had one. "Mystique, Kakashi made two of my Chaos Emeralds disappear somehow. He said there was no trick to it, but… if you find them, bring them back, okay?" Incredible had started after Mystique, and Shadow leaped into the air and hit him in the back with a homing attack.

This did absolutely no good – he wasn't even able to scratch whatever Incredible's costume was made of. In fact, it left him open for a 'tap' from Incredible with the I-beam. He was thrown across the room yet again, this time shattering the jumbo screen. As Shadow dashed away from the glass raining down around him, he got up to Mystique's position. She was smiling deviously. "What's in it for me?" she asked.

"Oh come on!" Shadow cried. "It's not like you can use them for anything." Mystique just smiled at him. "I'll buy you a chili dog or something! Anything!" She arched an eyebrow. "Ugh… yes, anything!" He saw Incredible toss the beam out of the corner of his eye and ducked as it impaled itself into the wall above him. "Chaos Spear!" the red arrow he shot from the gem didn't do much apparent damage to Incredible, but at least he acknowledged being struck by it, flinching back and almost falling back down the stairs.

Mystique laughed. "We'll work out our terms later." She pulled the pin from a fragmentation grenade and pitched it into the middle of the room. "Come along, Kakashi, or Jade will be letting the wrong silver-haired ninja onto the transport with him." The grenade burst in the middle of the room just as she slammed the door behind her. Not three seconds later, Kakashi dropped from the ceiling next to the door.

"It really is too dangerous to allow somebody with her powers to get out of our sight," Kakashi apologized. "Incredible, I need you to handle Shadow." He raced out the door, leaving Shadow alone with the huge superhuman. There was an uncomfortable silent moment between the two, punctuated by a crackle from the broken television screen. Shadow dropped his empty pistol and grabbed a morning star from another Klokateer corpse, swinging it experimentally. It was too big for him… just the way he liked it.

"Shadow, I don't want to fight you," Mr. Incredible said. "I'm not like Kakashi – I really, really don't like killing. Even in self-defense, it leaves an awful taste in my mouth. Look, we can talk this out – I'm sure you know what BORED does – Kakashi knows, Mystique knows. Much easier than fighting it out. And it's not like you can win – I mean, I've got a kid with your power, and about your size, and he's really something, but I don't think he could take me in a fight."

"If your experience with me is based on seeing my primary ability in the hands of a child, you don't have the data you need. Chaos Spear!" Shadow shot another blast at Incredible, who dodged this one and began taking leaping strides toward Shadow. Unfazed, Shadow ran to the side, ran up onto the wall rather than go down the stairs opposite the flight Incredible was on, took a few laps around the sides of the room to build up momentum, and slammed the morning star into the side of Incredible's head. Incredible staggered a little, but the weapon shattered without breaking the skin, the crack in Shadow's pelvis flared painfully, and his arm was nearly dislocated from the impact. "Ugh… damn…" Shadow spilled out on the ground, finding himself staring up at Incredible's very unamused face. "Heheh… who's up for an impromptu tour of the base?"

* * *

Despite the flashes of pain in his leg, Kakashi ran towards the planned extraction point. _She couldn't possibly have found out the whole plan, could she? She wasn't present, and communications were down… she could've found out from Jade, but probably not by talking to him. It would be just like Incredible to blabber the whole thing to her… wait, did we even tell Incredible the whole plan? I know we glossed over the high-casualty parts…_ He slowed to a walk and looked carefully around, hoping he hadn't missed her. She could be any person or animal, after all.

Behind Kakashi, a Patriot corpse with her neck broken at a sick angle carefully moved her arm and fired, sinking a bullet into the back of the ninja's head. Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke and was replaced with another corpse, which flopped to the ground uselessly "Damn!" the Patriot jumped to her feet, her neck wobbling grotesquely until she pulled herself back into her original form. She lashed backwards with her elbow, knocking Kakashi off-balance and preventing her from snapping her neck for good. "How'd you know it was me?" she yelled, shooting wildly.

Kakashi dodged the first two bullets, but took the third and exploded into a puff of smoke. She turned again and spin-kicked another Kakashi away, knocking the kunai from his hand with a follow-up kick. This one appeared to be real, as he simply rubbed his hand while she pointed her gun at him. "You have a way of cloaking your scent… but you didn't add the scent of a corpse in its stead. You didn't smell like anything, which was suspicious… also, you're out of ammunition." Mystique hesitated and checked her gun, and he kicked it from her. "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" A huge fireball was launched from Kakashi's mouth, apparently passing harmlessly through his mask. Unusually, the fireball was burning crimson. "Huh…"

Either way, it presented the same amount of danger to Mystique. She vaulted into the air, decreasing her mass as soon as she left the ground to optimize her jump height. It worked; she cleared the fireball and touched the ceiling, which she pushed off of to come down foot-first on Kakashi. He blocked the first kick, but she spun her foot to send his arm flailing back and drove her other heel down onto his opposite shoulder, stunning his arm. He took a third kick across the temple, but dodged the final one as she fell to the ground. "At least you bleed. I was worried I'd need to find an artillery piece to deal with Incredible."

"You still might." Kakashi smiled under his mask. "With only one Emerald, I don't think that hedgehog has the power to bring Incredible down. And you're assuming you have the power to deal with me." Mystique nervously fingered the SPAS-12 shotgun she had been carrying on her back since she pretended to be Syndrome. Before she could make a grab for it, Kakashi threw a volley of shuriken, conjured a pair of kage bunshin, and charged in alongside them, each drawing a kunai knife.

Mystique leaned back low to avoid the shuriken and turned it into a full backflip, flipped back into the shape of a tiger, and sprang forward, punching through one of the doppelgangers immediately with her claws. One of the two remaining ninja went for her throat, while the other made to leap on her back. She reverted back to human form, tucked and rolled backwards, evading both. The one who had gone for her back spun to slash at her, but she blocked his forearm and delivered a disarming strike to his inner elbow. He grabbed her right arm with his left and flipped her over his shoulder, preventing her from grabbing the knife and bringing her down hard belly-up on the ground. She grunted, aware of the gun digging into her back, and saw the other Kakashi come at her, knife out and ready to disembowel.

"You'll have to do better than that!" Recalling the tiger form again, Mystique kicked out with her transformed back legs and gored the bunshin before it could return the favor, dismissing it. As her arm changed into a foreleg, her wrist became too thick for the real Kakashi to grasp, and he jumped back with a shallow cut on his forearm where her thrashing claws had slashed him. "Tell me, ninja, was that part of your plan?" Mystique asked as she took human form.

"Actually, it was," Kakashi said enigmatically. Mystique scoffed and drew her shotgun, but then she noticed a stir of movement in her peripheral. Another of the hallway's corpses got up and dashed at her, discarding its appearance and taking on the ninja's by-now familiar form. _Another doppelganger! When did he plant it?_ By the time Mystique had dodged a few punches and kicks, lined up a shot, and blasted the clone out of existence, Kakashi had… gotten out a scroll of paper, gotten his blood smeared all over it, twirled it, done some hand signs, and slammed it on the ground. _Whatever. Knowing those ninja, it's more dangerous than that would suggest._ "Kuchiyose: Doton: Tsuaiga no Jutsu!"

Mystique took aim and pumped out the spent shell, cursing the lack of a good semi-automatic shotgun in the BORED weapons locker. That half-second delay was too much, as it was all the time Kakashi needed. The ground rippled, and then burst as a pack of dogs wearing capes and forehead protectors matching Kakashi's erupted around Mystique. She blasted one of the dogs, which vanished in a yelp and a puff of smoke, but the others bit down hard all over her body, immobilizing her, forcing her to drop the shotgun, and threatening to drag her to the ground. "WHAT THE HELL!" Mystique cried out, struggling to move her arms. With this many sets of fangs, a combat animal shift would only leave her throat exposed, and an evasive shift would never escape in time.

"Fun fact," Kakashi said, making hand signs at a leisurely pace, "I needed my blood on your person for that to work. Raikiri!" He pulled back his arm, and it lit up with blood-red chakra. "… I see. Those Emeralds I took from Shadow seem to have affected my chakra somehow; I suppose that explains why it's been replenishing so quickly. I'd like to have a better idea of how this affects me… there's so much I don't know yet about Kamui. However, I don't have all day." He refocused on Mystique. "Best not to look a gift horse in the mouth!" He charged forward.

In the few seconds Kakashi spent contemplating, Mystique had thought of a plan. She reached her leg out to the shotgun, letting the dogs start to pull her down. However, the dogs apparently were trained to hold her in place for Kakashi's technique – to the contrary, after the first few inches, they actually held her up. _Oh well, that wasn't the point of my plan._ Gritting her teeth, Mystique shifted her leg into the shape of a long arm, changing her foot into a hand and reversing the direction of her knee. Grabbing the shotgun, she swung it up and pulled the trigger one-handed. As Kakashi desperately tried to decelerate in front of her, time seemed to slow to a standstill.

She hadn't used the pump-action after her previous shot.

She desperately shifted her other leg into another arm, ignoring the small terrier clinging to that calf as best she could. Kakashi understood what she was trying to do, and laughed. "I don't think so," he said. She primed the gun, bringing it back up to aim at him. He was standing only three feet from him now. "Kamui," he said as she started to pull the trigger.

Space began to warp around the gun… and then it began to warp around Kakashi's head. Dissipating his Raikiri, he reared back and grabbed his head, screaming as a column of red light shot from his eye. Mystique and the dogs both looked on in awe as multiple odds and ends were thrown out of the column of light. A severed arm fell to the floor, along with some pieces of clay… many kunai and shuriken… and two gems. The column faded as quickly as it had come, leaving only a trail of smoke. "Your eye is on fire," Mystique said with a harsh smile, and emptied a shotgun blast into Kakashi's abdomen.

Kakashi collapsed to the ground, clutching his wound, and all the hounds on Mystique disappeared, allowing her to fall to the ground. Groaning, she resumed her full normal shape and began shapeshifting her wounds closed. "Don't think this is over," Kakashi said, pulling himself up into a sitting position. "Raikiri…" the chakra he formed was once again light blue. Ready to counterattack, Mystique pulled herself back up to a standing position with a sigh. This time, she pumped the gun beforehand. "Lightning Hound!" Kakashi _threw _the Raikiri, which took on a lupine shape.

Cursing, Mystique avoided it by rolling to the side. However, the 'hound' followed her, changing direction and chasing her. She rolled away again, and noticed it was connected to Kakashi by a string of lightning. "This is just a desperation trick!" She dodged the hound once more and leapt onto Kakashi's chest, emptying a shell into his face. It was another clone, and it dissipated… into a lightning bolt. Mystique felt every hair on her body stand on end as she was shocked and tossed across the room.

When she got up, she found herself facing about forty of Kakashi. "Wounded or not, I was still given a great deal of chakra by those gems," they all said with a flurry of winks. Then they charged her, fists out. Letting out an exasperated sigh, Mystique shapeshifted into another of Kakashi, and charged into the sea. As she expected, by attacking in a way designed to create confusion, she was able to cause the clones to attack each other. Taking wild swings as she ran and dodging as best she could, she soon emerged on the other side to see the real Kakashi clutching his stomach and climbing weakly onto the back of the largest of the dogs he had previously summoned – a great black mastiff that had left tooth marks in Mystique's shoulder. "How'd you elude the clones?" Kakashi asked, surprised.

"I still mask my natural scent," Mystique said in her own voice, "but with your blood, I have the right scent to replace it. I don't know where you're going… that's a fatal wound anyway." She had lost the shotgun, but a corpse left over from Kakashi's use of it as a substitution puppet yielded a machine pistol from one of its two holsters.

"I've seen you survive about the same from Robotnik," Kakashi said with a weak smile under his mask. "At any rate… here's a parting gift." His hands flashed through some signs. "Rai-" his latest jutsu was interrupted by Mystique simply emptying an entire clip of ammunition into his head and shoulders. Kakashi dropped limply off the side of the hound.

Mystique marched over to him. "There's a lot you don't know about guns, but they really can be the simplest thing in the world." The dog stared at her balefully. "What are you looking at?" She kicked it in the head, and it vanished. "Stupid dog." The clones had, by now, dissipated as well, leaving her alone with Kakashi's body. "At the end of the day… at least one thing's simple. Just point and pull the…" she stared at the body. A Patriot body. Most definitely not Kakashi's.

The corpse she had just raided sat up and drew its other machine pistol. "Thanks for the instructions," Kakashi said, pulling the trigger. Twenty five bullets flew from the gun in rapid succession. As Mystique turned and sprinted toward Kakashi, fourteen went wide, one passed between her legs, and three simply grazed her. Two buried themselves in her right arm, one in each leg, and one in her left arm. Two hit her in the torso, although they missed her vitals. Not one was enough to prevent her from shapeshifting into the façade of a very infamous Canadian mutant, or from burying a set of bone claws in his heart.

* * *

"Chaos Control!" Shadow cried. Time slowed to a crawl, Mr. Incredible's running feet floating in midair. Shadow leapt up to the huge man's face and punched him repeatedly, kicked him, aimed for the eyes, the throat, the groin. He even tried slashing at the man with his claws and (although he wouldn't later admit to it) biting. Nothing worked; nothing could cut or bruise the giant. Feeling the strain, he jumped away and released the Chaos Control.

"Give it up, little man!" Incredible shouted. He ran towards Shadow – Incredible was, to give him credit, a fast runner, although not up to Kakashi's standards – and tried to slam his hand down on Shadow, pinning him in place. Shadow dodged, but he was getting sloppy. Mr. Incredible seemed able to do this all night. "Come on, I really don't want to kill you, but if you… you know, fall into the lava while attacking me, well, that's not my responsibility. It's happened to me before, you know."

Shadow ignored him with ease. He wasn't nearly as loud as he was strong. "Wandering Chaos!" Shadow created an orb of concentrated, destructive Chaos energy and sent it spinning at Incredible. The Super made sounds of annoyance as it buzzed along his skin; Shadow directed it with one hand, trying desperately to find a weak spot. Finally, Incredible backhanded it, splattering the orb into a mist of red particles that rained down gently around him. "Dammit…" Shadow dashed in front of a window.

"Oh, no, I know this trick. You're going to get behind me and try and knock me out the window when I get close. What am I, a bull?" Incredible instead began ripping out wall panels and flooring and tossing them at Shadow, forcing him to dodge-dance around them. "You're looking a little tired, kid," Incredible chuckled. "You want to take five? Maybe negotiate terms of surrender?"

"Sh-shut up!" Shadow powered himself back to the farthest end of the gently curving hallway, putting a good seventy feet between him and Incredible. He cracked his knuckles and began building up a Spin Dash. "Maybe a good old showdown…" If Shadow was waiting for Incredible to make a move, it didn't take long. Incredible tore down the hallway, with another piece of flooring ready to swing or throw. Upon sighting his target, Shadow tore straight at him.

Using the spin dash protected Shadow's body and allowed him to reach maximum speed with a little less stress on his pelvis. Even so, impacting with Incredible's forearm and grinding at it was more painful and fruitless than he could imagine. He rolled past the heroic brute, not deluding himself that he had hurt Incredible's arm more than his own back. Just for kicks, though, he shot Incredible in the back with a Chaos Spear as he turned around. "Ow… " Incredible rubbed his back. "Persistent, aren't you?"

"I am getting paid for this," Shadow pointed out. "I'm sure you've got some weakness or another, old man." He chuckled at the words even as he said them. _Old man… I'm older than he is, I bet._ "I'll find something!" He ran past Incredible, this time grabbing his arm. He dragged the hero back a step before Incredible pulled back forward in earnest, flinging Shadow back against the wall.

Incredible rubbed the back of his head. "Come on, man, you're just going to hurt yourself." A door burst open just past Shadow, and Kakashi strode in, walking with a purpose. "Hey, Kakashi, I'm just wrapping up here. Shadow seems about ready to run himself into unconsciousness. You, uh, you at least made it quick for Mystique, right?" Kakashi didn't answer, but tossed a blinking canister Mr. Incredible's way. He stared as it bounced up to his feet, his face blank. "This is me getting tear gassed for the second time in an hour." The gas went off, causing a stream of hacking and child-safe swearing to issue forth from it.

Mystique pulled the two Emeralds out of Kakashi's vest, which she seemed to have actually taken rather than shapeshifted. "Here. You can pay me back by getting this big oaf out of our face, and dragging me to the nearest copter if my wounds make me pass out." Beads of sweat were rolling off her chin from exertion. "Bite wounds and bullets were probably the last two things I expected from Kakashi."

"Well, he's a ninja," Shadow said, grabbing the Chaos Emeralds, "so if you didn't expect it, I guess he was doing his job. Alright… I could try sucking him into another dimension… but I saw how well that worked for Kakashi and against Eggman…" He rubbed the gems, feeling the power swirling around him. "Chaos Lance probably won't have enough penetration power either… Damn…"

Mystique slumped against the wall, looking at the tear gas cloud as it started to dissipate. "You need to make up your mind; people build up a resistance to that stuff after repeated exposure, and it was my last grenade." She pulled a fresh kunai knife from Kakashi's vest and started digging at the bullets in her legs, holding one of his scrolls between her teeth for something to bite down on. "Hey," she grunted through the wet paper and the pain, "can't you hurt him with momentum?"

"Not normally. I'll just break my hand. I'd have to be Super, but…" Shadow stared at the Emeralds. "I'm going to try something really, really dumb." He sucked all the energy he could out of the Emeralds, levitating them around him, and absorbed it all. Shadow allowed himself to lift into the air as a golden corona of energy formed around him. The black portions of his fur lit up and changed to glowing platinum, while the red and white parts of his fur retained their color. "Okay, I think this might actually work…"

Mystique looked him up and down suspiciously. Licks of red Chaos energy and gold… unknown energy swirled around his body, lighting up the entire room. Wind seemed to blow outward from him, dispelling the tear gas around Incredible. "Your dossier said you needed seven of those gems to do that. How long do you think you can hold it with three?"

"About five more seconds," Shadow admitted, his teeth chattering. "Get back!" He focused the full blast of his powers backwards and cocked his fist, getting ready to deliver the hardest punch of his life.

Meanwhile, Incredible could only see a shining golden blur in front of him. However, he could hear just fine, and he had a rough idea of what was happening. "Okay, that's pretty super," he admitted. "But let's see how it stands up!" He charged forward blindly, his fist ready.

Shadow rocketed forward. He didn't reach the speed of light, as Super Sonic had been rumored to do. However, he certainly surpassed Mach 10, reaching speeds that Mr. Incredible simply wasn't used to dealing with. Dodging Incredible's punch, he pumped all his available energy into his right fist –already plunged deep into Incredible's gut. "Chaos… Launch!" The blast of released energy propelled Mr. Incredible backwards through several walls and out of the volcanic cloud. It also shattered every piece of glass in the hallway and nearly knocked Mystique unconscious.

Shadow reverted back to his usual coloring and fell to his knees. His limbs felt like jelly, but he forced himself back onto his feet. "I still… have a job to do…" he panted. He staggered to a wall and felt the world spin around him. He wouldn't lose consciousness. He _wouldn't.

* * *

_

Mr. Incredible survived both the punch and the subsequent Chaos Launch. However, he would not survive long enough to reach the zenith of his arc, as his path carried him into the primary rotor of the Dethkopter.

The entire ship lurched. "Whoa whoa whoa, what happened there?" One of the pilots asked. "We just nearly dropped out of the sky."

"I don't know, man," the copilot said. "Fuck! It feels like the rotor just chewed through a boulder." Almost as if on cue, a thick puree of blood and gore splattered onto the windshield. "A MEATY boulder."

"Dude, I'll run the industrial wipers," the pilot said. "But first I'm taking a picture. This is so brutal. How's the rotor?"

"It's at eighty-five percent. Kinda chewed up; we should have it looked at. It'll last us through the trip, though." The gas-masked pilot looked at the windshield. "Widescreen Windshield Full of Blood. Somebody should tell Lord Explosion that would make a good song title."

**End of Chapter**

**Kakashi in particular kind of dominated this chapter. To be honest, I'm more comfortable writing _Naruto_-style fights than those of the other three canons, and he's probably the character I'm most experienced with.**

**Curtiss doesn't learn Spark Wave in-game, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility that he'd learn it. It's from other games in the Tales series. Lightning and Thunder Blade seem weird indoors.**

**Mr. Incredible is way damage resistant here. At least in my competitor's entries, Chaos Spear burns him or kills him; here, it only pushes him back a step. If I'd made him a bit less invincible, it may have been a better fight... ah well.**

**Kamui... right. Well, I wanted Kakashi using his most devastating trick, the properties of which happen to be largely unspecified in-canon. It teleports things into another dimension; nothing more is explained, so I assume Kakashi doesn't know much more about the trick. Well, in this case, the phlebetonium combination of Kamui and the Chaos Emeralds proves too much. The dimension is assumed to be a pocket dimension directly connected to Kakashi's eye, and by extension, his chakra coils. Chaos energy from the two gems overflows from this tiny dimension, so it leaks from the dimension and into his chakra. However, this also makes his Sharingan unstable because that's where the energy is pouring from; the next time he opens up the Kamui portal, it gets purged instead of working properly.**

**Shadow does go Super Shadow here... albeit in a very unstable form of Super Shadow. I have explanations for it somewhere in the forum. I think it's in the I Missed the Chance, But... thread.**

**Yes, to be clear, Kakashi gets shot in the abdomen and bone-clawed in the head. And Mr. Incredible gets stage-gibbed on the Dethkopter after getting punched at very, very high speeds.  
**

**Like Khellan, I'll provide a translation guide for Kakashi's Jutsu. Most of them are canon, although the first is a gestalt of canon jutsu.**

Raiton: Rairyūdan no Jutsu: Lightning Release: Lightning Dragon Technique

Raikiri: Lightning Cutter

Kawarimi no Jutsu: Substitution Technique (unannounced)

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu: Shadow Clone Technique (unannounced)

Kamui: Might of the Gods

Shunshin no Jutsu: Body Flicker Technique (unannounced)

Henge no Jutsu: Transformation Technique (unannounced)

Kuchiyose: Doton: Tsuaiga no Jutsu: Earth Style Summoning: Fanged Pursuit Technique

Raikiri Lightning Hound (no Japanese name was listed on the Naruto wikia)

Raiton Kage Bunshin: Lightning Release Shadow Clone (unannounced)

Tajuu Kage Bunshin: Multiple Shadow Clone (unannounced)


End file.
